Round Two Between Lady Raiders and Lady Toppers Takes Place Thursday

MURFREESBORO, Tenn.---Middle Tennessee women's basketball looks to get back into the win column Thursday when it hosts WKU. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. inside the Murphy Center.

Tickets are available at goblueraiders.com/tickets or by calling the Blue Raider Ticket Office at 615-898-5261. The game will also air on ESPN+ and the Blue Raider Network.

Thursday will be a matchup against the top two teams in the Conference USA standings. The Lady Raiders (18-4, 11-2 C-USA) defeated the Lady Toppers (13-9, 10-3 C-USA), 80-75 back on New Year's Eve in Bowling Green, Ky.

LAST TIME OUT

No. 21/23 Middle Tennessee women's basketball attempted season-high 75 field goal attempts, including a program record 54 3-point attempts, but couldn't get enough shots to fall in a 53-58 loss to UTSA Saturday afternoon.

The Lady Raiders held a tight lead for the majority of the first half. A 14-4 run to start the second stretched the MTSU lead to 36-25 at the 4:54 mark in the third quarter. After the Roadrunners erased the deficit, the two teams exchanged shares of the lead for the first five minutes of the fourth quarter until a late 8-0 run put UTSA in front for the final 3:54.

Courtney Whitson recorded her 10th career double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Eight of Whitson's boards were on the offensive glass. Savannah Wheeler finished with 11 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals and Kseniya Malashka added nine points, five rebounds, three blocks and two steals.

ON THE COURT

Overall Stat Leaders
Points - Kseniya Malashka (16.0 PPG)
Rebounds - Courtney Whitson (8.0 RPG)
Assists - Savannah Wheeler (3.3 APG)
Steals - Jalynn Gregory (1.8 SPG)

LADY RAIDER NOTES

Courtney Whitson hit her 200th career 3-pointer Feb. 2 at UTEP. She became just the seventh Lady Raider all-time to make at least 200 treys. Her 206 threes currently ranks tied for sixth with Kristi Brown on the program's career list.

The Kingsport, Tenn. native, who has played in all 40 minutes in the last two games, ranks sixth on the program's minutes played list with 3842. Whitson has started in all 112 games of her career, which is eighth in program history. She is sixth in the country this season in minutes per game with 37.4.
Whitson's also making her way up the rebounding list. 787 career rebounds ranks fifth in program history. She is 101 rebounds away from passing Tawanya Mucker for fourth.
Kseniya Malashka continues to provide a spark off the bench for the Lady Raiders. She is averaging 16.4 points per game during conference play and leads C-USA in blocks per game with 2.2.
Malashka 5.8 rebounds in 22 games played this season and averages 1.8 steals per game. She dished five assists in the two games in Texas last week
The Lady Raiders rank 19th nationally and lead C-USA in field goal percentage defense, holding teams to 35.6 percent shooting. In overall scoring defense, Middle Tennessee's opponents are scoring just 55 points per game, which ranks 21st in the country and first in the conference. In addition, the Lady Raiders are forcing 18 turnovers per game and 9.1 steals per game.
Middle Tennessee leads all of Conference USA and ranks 12th in the nation with a 17.6 scoring margin.

SCOUTING WKU

Another chapter in the Middle Tennessee-WKU rivalry takes place Thursday night. Middle Tennessee stretched its lead to 39-32 in the all-time series earlier this season with an 80-75 win in Bowling Green. The Lady Raiders have won four straight games vs. the Lady Toppers at the Murphy Center.
The Lady Toppers have won nine of their last 10 games and are second in the C-USA standings at 10-3 in conference play. In its current four-game winning streak, WKU is averaging a margin of victory of 3.25. Overall, WKU has played in several tight games this season, posting a 1.5 scoring margin.
One of the best teams in the nation beyond the arc and forcing turnovers, the Lady Toppers rank sixth in the country with 12.2 steals per game and 17th in the nation in both three pointers per game (8.5) and turnovers forced per game (21.05).
Five Lady Toppers are averaging over eight points per game.

UPCOMING PROMOTIONS

The first 200 students will receive blue MTSU basketball t-shirts. Fans will receive pom poms. Thursday is also Faculty/Staff Appreciation night.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Jalynn Gregory

Kseniya Malashka

Savannah Wheeler

Courtney Whitson

Middle Tennessee State University Athletics