Featured photo by Preston Todd
Story by Calvin White
MURFREESBORO, Tenn- Middle Tennessee women’s basketball loses its first home game since the 2022 WNIT in a 65-60 loss to Princeton.
MTSU (2-1) led by five at halftime, but Princeton (2-0) took over in the third quarter. The Tigers outscored MTSU 22-13 in the frame and shot 9-of-15 from the field.
“In the third quarter, we had a hard time defending,” MTSU head coach Rick Insell said. “Usually, we pretty much instill our will on the defensive end and instead of us instilling our will, they instilled theirs.”
Princeton’s size greatly affected the rebound numbers for both teams. The Tigers pulled down 15 offensive rebounds but only converted those rebounds into 12 second-chance points. The extra time MTSU had to spend playing defense limited its chances to score more points. In total, Princeton outrebounded MTSU 42-30.
“They (Princeton) were really crashing,” Jalynn Gregory said. “I know me and Savannah (Wheeler) got in trouble for not going because our post players were battling their butts off trying to keep their girl off the boards. So when the ball gets tipped up, there has to be someone there to grab it.”
Anastasiia Boldyreva scored six points and grabbed six rebounds in the first quarter but finished with only nine points and six rebounds. Princeton was able to limit Boldyreva and control MTSU’s paint attack.
Princeton used an explosive third quarter and made enough timely shots to gain and keep momentum against MTSU. The Lady Raiders did some things against the Tigers that Rick Insell has to get corrected before MTSU travels to the Bahamas to play Michigan in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament.
“We’ll come in tomorrow and work on our defense,” Insell said. “We’ll watch film. We had about five possessions where we didn’t know what was going on, so our communication was poor. We’ll talk about that.”
Calvin White is the sports editor for MTSU Sidelines. If you have information for a story, you can contact him at wcw3f@mtmail.mtsu.edu. For more news, visit www.mtsusidelines.com. Also, follow us on Facebook and Instagram @mtsusidelines, or on X @MTSUSidelines.
