Featured Photo by Matt Posey/MTSU Athletic Communications
Story by Jenna Roberts
After losing two conference games in a row in Texas, the Lady Raiders (19-4, 12-2 C-USA) came back to defeat Western Kentucky (13-10, 10-4 C-USA) 94-81 in a shootout in the glass house on Thursday.
The highly physical game started out slow for the Lady Raiders, trailing by 10 in the first quarter. Despite the Lady Toppers making a school record 16 3-pointers, it wasn’t enough to take Middle Tennessee down.
By the 7:21 mark in the second quarter, MTSU went on a 15-4 run to take the lead for the first time. The Lady Raiders held a tight lead for most of the game, but late in the fourth, MTSU went on an 11-2 run to push a nine-point lead. WKU was unable to get closer than six points the rest of the way.
The Lady Raiders shot a scorching 63 percent from the field and 9-for-11 from the free throw line.
“They thought they killed us in Texas, but they just woke us up.” MTSU head coach Rick Insell said.
Savannah Wheeler played her best game in a Lady Raider uniform, scoring 37 points on 11-of-16 shooting, making 13-of-15 free throws. Wheeler’s 37 points were the most points in a game by a Lady Raider since the 2020-21 season. Wheeler tied the most points scored by a Conference USA player in a game this season and set her own career high in a C-USA game. Her 11 field goals and 13 free throws set new season highs.
While Wheeler led the way for Middle Tennessee, Jalynn Gregory added 19 points and Anastasiia Boldyreva and Alexis Whittington added 13 points each.
Whittington recorded her first double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Her performance was essential for the MTSU victory, due to the absence of the team’s top rebounder Courtney Whitson, who was sidelined with an ankle injury.
“It was just a mindset of knowing it was going to go in,” Gregory said. “We struggled the last couple of weeks of getting our outside shots to fall. It was just trusting that they were going to go in. Because as shooters, you can’t stop shooting. As they tell us, if we stop shooting, then we’re passing our anxiety onto everybody else. If we just keep shooting, they’re eventually going to fall.”
Jenna Roberts is a sports reporter for MTSU Sidelines. If you have any information for a story, you can contact her at jennanroberts3@gmail.com.
