Final homestand of regular season wraps up with Marshall, WKU

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Middle Tennessee (20-7, 11-3 C-USA) concludes the home portion of the regular season schedule this week as it hosts Marshall (11-17, 4-11) Thursday at 6 p.m. and Western Kentucky (17-11, 9-6) Saturday at 6 p.m. CT. The Blue Raiders will look to extend their home winning streak to as many as 17 games after defeating UTEP 77-69 at the Murphy Center on Monday.

Both games will be broadcast on ESPN+. Fans can tune into the radio broadcast WGNS 1450AM/100.5 FM/101.9 FM; The Game 2 94.9 FM/95.1 FM with Chip Walters and Kyle Turnham on the call. Tickets are available here.

Donovan Sims led the way with 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting Monday, going 3-for-3 from long distance. MT got valuable minutes out of its bench, as Camryn Weston (+24), Christian Fussell (+23) and Teafale Lenard Jr. (+20) led the team in plus-minus on the night in reserve roles.

PROMOTIONS
Thursday
Game Sponsor - First Horizon - 500 hats will be given away
Teacher Appreciation - All MCS and RCS Employees receive two complimentary tickets
Block Cancer - Both teams will wear special warmups in support of the Mike Slive Foundation
Student Giveaway - Airpods and Nike Gear

Saturday
Game Sponsor - Ascend FCU (Giving out 1,000 Blue Out T Shirts)
Senior Day - MT will honor its senior basketball players in a pregame ceremony
Halftime - Legends Recognition

Game 28: Middle Tennessee (20-7, 11-3 C-USA) vs. Marshall (11-17, 4-11)
» Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022 – 6 p.m. CT
» Murphy Center
» Murfreesboro, TN

Game 29: Middle Tennessee (20-7, 11-3 C-USA) vs. Western Kentucky (17-11, 9-6)
» Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022 – 6 p.m. CT
» Murphy Center
» Murfreesboro, TN

All-Time vs. Marshall
» MT leads the all-time series 12-9 after snapping a six-game losing streak to the Thundering Herd with an 81-79 win on Jan. 27.
» The Blue Raiders are looking for their first season sweep of Marshall since beating the Herd three times in the 2016-17 season.

All-Time vs. Western Kentucky
» WKU leads the all-time series 97-44.with MT having won five of the last nine matchups.
» The Blue Raiders are looking for their 10th season sweep in the history of the rivalry, which dates back to the 1914-15 season..

Blue Raiders Notes
» Fifth-year Blue Raider Donovan Sims on Feb. 10 became the 34th member of MT's 1,000-point club. The home-grown guard is fourth all-time with 100 career games started and 130 games played, sixth with 141 steals, seventh with 323 assists and 3,110 minutes, and eighth with 160 3-pointers made.
» As of Wednesday morning, the Blue Raiders have made one of the largest year-over-year turnarounds in the country, having improved upon last season's win total by 15, tied with Wake Forest for third-most in the country. Only Towson (17), and Iowa State (16) have made bigger leaps. MT's +.523 year-over-year winning percentage increase is third-highest in the nation.
» Josh Jefferson has scored in
» Middle Tennessee's 15-game home winning streak is the longest active streak
» MT has guaranteed itself its first winning overall record since 2017-18 and enters Thursday's game with a 2.5-game lead on WKU (9-3 C-USA) at the top of the East Division.
» Teafale Lenard Jr.'s 36 dunks on the season are the second-most by a Blue Raider since 2016-17, trailing only Reggie Scurry's 49 in 2018-19. After blocking seven shots in his last three games, Lenard is sixth in Conference USA and 87th nationally with 31 rejections on the season.

Scouting the Thundering Herd
» Taevion Kinsey, widely projected as a second-round pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, leads Marshall and ranks fourth in C-USA in scoring at 19.0 points per game. He scored 18 on 3-of-10 shooting when the two teams met in Huntington on Jan. 27.
» Obinna Anochili-Killen leads Marshall in rebounding at 6.2 boards per game.
» Marshall ranks 13th out of 14 teams in C-USA in 3-point field goal percentage at .294. The Thundering Herd shot .455 from distance against the Blue Raiders earlier this season.
» Kinsey has scored in double figures in 25 of his 26 games played this year.
» Marshall allows the most points in the conference at 76.6 per game.

Scouting the Hilltoppers
» Dayvion McKnight leads the conference and is 13th in the country with 5.9 assists per game. He also leads WKU and is sixth in the league in scoring at 15.9 points per game.
» Rick Stansbury's squad is the least-penalized team in Division I, having been whistled for a nationwide-low 11.6 personal fouls per game.
» Jamarion Sharp - the tallest player in the country at 7'5" - is second in the country with 4.46 blocked shots per game.
» Sharp is eighth in C-USA with 7.1 rebounds per game.
» Camron Justice's .404 3-point percentage ranks fourth in the conference.

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Players Mentioned

Christian Fussell

Josh Jefferson

Teafale Lenard Jr.

Donovan Sims

Camryn Weston

Middle Tennesee State University Athletics