Regular season wraps up with road swing to Charlotte, Old Dominion

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Middle Tennessee (22-7, 13-3 Conference USA) ends its regular season this week with games at Charlotte (15-13, 8-8) on Wednesday and at Old Dominion (12-17, 7-9) on Saturday. The Blue Raiders wrapped up the C-USA East title Saturday with a 69-52 victory over Western Kentucky.

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 on the call. Tickets are available here for Wednesday and here for Saturday.

Eli Lawrence's 15 points led MT on Saturday, as Camryn Weston recorded the first double-double with a single-digit point total in the history of Blue Raider basketball. Weston is just the third player in the country this season with double-digit rebounds and assists and no turnovers in a game this year and just the second to do it against Division I competition.

Game 30: Middle Tennessee (22-7, 13-3 C-USA) at Charlotte (15-13, 8-8)
» Wednesday, March 2, 2022 – 6 p.m. CT
» Halton Arena
» Charlotte, NC

Game 31: Middle Tennessee (22-7, 13-3 C-USA) at Old Dominion (12-17, 7-9)
» Saturday, March 5, 2022 – 1 p.m. CT
» CHartway Arena
» Norfolk, VA

All-Time vs. Charlotte
» MT leads the all-time series 12-2 after defeating the 49ers on Feb. 13.
» The Blue Raiders have not won at Charlotte since Feb. 3, 2018.

All-Time vs. Old Dominion
» MT leads the all-time series 10-4 after a 63-48 win on Feb. 10.
» The Blue Raiders snapped a four-game losing streak to the Monarchs with that victory. The last MT victory at Old Dominion came Feb. 1, 2018.

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 102 career games started and 132 games played, tied for fifth with 145 steals, seventh with 328 assists and 3,156 minutes, and eighth with 160 3-pointers made.
» 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 17. Only Towson (20), and Iowa State (18) have made bigger leaps. MT's +.541 year-over-year winning percentage increase is second-highest in the nation among teams that played 20 or more games in 2020-21.
» Josh Jefferson has scored in double figures in a career-high 10 straight games. He is tied for 10th-most in a single season in program history with 71 made 3-pointers.
» Middle Tennessee's 17-game home winning streak is the longest active streak in Conference USA and fourth-longest in program history.
» The Blue Raiders set a program record by winning eight games in the month of February. The last time MT won eight or more games in any month was January 2017 (9-0).
» Teafale Lenard Jr.'s 41 dunks on the season are the second-most by a Blue Raider since 2016-17, trailing only Reggie Scurry's 49 in 2018-19. He needs one blocked shot for the 10th-most by a Blue Raider in a single season.

Scouting the 49ers
» Jahmir Young leads C-USA in points scored at 557, averaging 19.89 per game.
» Freshman Aly Khalifa is second in the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.08.
» Charlotte leads the league and is seventh in the country with a .789 free throw percentage.
» The 49ers have lost four of their last six games.
» Young has reached 20 points in five of his last six games and has scored in double figures in every game this season.

Scouting the Monarchs
» Jeff Jones' squad attempts the fewest 3-pointers in the league and ranks No. 337 out of 358 teams in the country with 431 tries from long range.
» Austin Trice is second in the conference with 11 double-doubles on the season.
» Jaylin Hunter is fifth in the conference with 124 assists on the year.
» ODU hosts LA Tech on Wednesday having won its last two games.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Josh Jefferson

Eli Lawrence

Teafale Lenard Jr.

Donovan Sims

Camryn Weston

Middle Tennessee State University Athletics