Featured photo by Matt Posey/MTSU Athletics
Story by Jenna Roberts
Murfreesboro, TN- No. 24 Middle Tennessee women’s basketball overwhelmed North Texas from start to finish in the Glass House Thursday night and secured a 72-45 victory.
The Lady Raiders started off strong, holding the Mean Green to only six points in the first quarter while scoring 20 of its own. Halfway through the second, MTSU doubled the score to take a 27-13 lead. Middle Tennessee made five of its last six shots to push the lead to 19 points at halftime (37-19).
The momentum for the Lady Raiders reduced slightly in the third quarter, but a late 9-0 run in the fourth quarter meant MTSU never trailed North Texas for the entirety of the game. MTSU shot 53.7 percent from the field, making this game the fourth out of the last six games that it has shot above 50 percent from the floor.
Five Lady Raiders were in double figure scoring, led by 15 points from Jalynn Gregory, 12 of which were scored from 3-point range. Anastasiia Boldyreva, Kseniya Malashka and Courtney Blakely scored 12 points each. Savannah Wheeler added 10 more points.
Courtney Whitson brought down 11 rebounds, scored seven points, and swiped a career high five steals.
“North Texas is a very aggressive, a very good basketball team,”MTSU head coach Rick Insell said. “They’ve got four young ladies that are in the top 15 in the conference in steals. So we knew we were going to have to take care of the ball. We ended up having 14 turnovers and that’s not what we’ve been having. We’ve been having anywhere from 8-11, so they were creating some havoc.”
The Lady Raiders take on UTEP Saturday in the Murphy Center for senior night before beginning the Conference USA tournament. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 pm CT.
Jenna Roberts is a sports reporter for MTSU Sidelines. If you have information for a story, you can contact her at jennanroberts3@gmail.com.
