Featured photo by Preston Todd
Story by Calvin White
Murfreesboro, TENN- In its first taste of outside competition in the 2023 season, Middle Tennessee women’s basketball dismantled UT Southern 97-44 in an exhibition game and showed why they can be just as good, if not better than last season’s team that rolled through Conference USA and made the NCAA Tournament.
1. New faces are going to be major contributors
Sife Ineza and Iullia Grabovskaia combined for 16 points and nine rebounds while both making multiple nice plays defensively. Ineza racked up four steals out of the 28 UT Southern turnovers that MTSU forced. Ineza smothered UT Southern’s guards with full-court pressure that resulted in a steal or bad pass. Grabovskaia controlled the glass with eight rebounds, blocked one shot and altered many others. If Ineza and Grabovskaia can keep up that type of production, Rick Insell’s bench would get even deeper.
2. Anastasiia Boldyreva looks like a different player
In her first two seasons in Murfreesboro, Anastasiia Boldyreva would often shy away from contact and get pushed around in the post by bigger or stronger opponents. Against UT Southern, Boldyreva initiated contact offensively and drew multiple UT Southern fouls. Boldyreva shot 5-of-8 from the foul line and blocked five shots.
“She’s an All-American,” Insell said of Boldyreva’s potential. “She’s already a great, great player but a lot of people don’t know about her. They’re going to find out about her before this is all said and done.”
3. Ta’Mia Scott is ready to solidify her spot in the rotation
Last season as a freshman, Ta’Mia Scott averaged 2.1 points per game in 8.3 minutes per game. Against UT Southern, Scott tallied 11 points, four rebounds, two assists and two blocks. Scott was also using her length to be disruptive in the passing lanes and making it hard for the UT Southern guards to run their offense. The dynamic guard can spot up and shoot or drive to the basket and finish. Her unique skillset could give Insell no choice but to reward her with more minutes.
“On a scale of one to ten, I think she’s about a four,” Insell said. “At a four, she’s good, but I want to see her playing at about a seven where she’s great and I think she can do that. When she gets her game to where I think it should be, she’s really going to bring something to the table.”
4. Increased size can combat bigger opponents
Insell played Boldyreva and Grabovskaia together briefly in the first half after experimenting all offseason to see if the combination would work. When Insell and his staff recruited Grabovskaia, they had one thing in mind, last season’s NCAA Tournament loss to Colorado where the Lady Raiders gave up a lot of size and strength. With Boldyreva’s length and shooting ability, she can be productive on the defensive end without sacrificing spacing on the offensive end. Although she has gotten stronger, Boldyreva is more of a finesse player and Grabovskaia is a traditional back-to-the-basket center. If the two can play substantial minutes on the court together, the Lady Raider defense will be even better than it was a season ago.
“One of the reasons we got beat by Colorado is that they were so much bigger and stronger than us,” Insell said. Matt (Insell) knew that and he went out and got us some people to battle inside.”
The first exhibition game was just a dress rehearsal for the Lady Raiders who have their eyes set on another NCAA Tournament berth. Most of the core group from last season is back and multiple newcomers will be very productive. This win doesn’t go in the record book but MTSU has started the season on the right foot.
Calvin White is the sports editor for MTSU Sidelines. For more news, visit www.mtsusidelines.com. Also, follow us on Facebook and Instagram @mtsusidelines, or on X @MTSUSidelines.
