Featured photo by Calvin White
Story by Calvin White
HUNTSVILLE, Ala- Balanced scoring and red-hot shooting from beyond the arc powered Middle Tennessee women’s basketball (7-3) to a 73-62 win over Tennessee (4-5) in the Propst Arena at the Von Braun Center.
MTSU head coach Rick Insell arrived at the postgame press conference drenched in water after his team gave him a celebratory splashing in the locker room just three days after the Lady Raiders lost by 14 points to Belmont.
“We knew after the Belmont game, we just had to reset,” MTSU guard Jalynn Gregory said. “We had to take the loss, they beat us, they deserved to win. We hit the reset button and we said ‘Next game.’”
The game was evenly matched throughout the first half, with the Lady Raiders taking a 37-33 lead into the break after Sifa Ineza stole a Lady Vol inbounds pass and drilled a 3-pointer at the other end to beat the buzzer.
Gregory couldn’t seem to find her footing in the first half but the sharpshooting guard sprung free for some open looks in the second half. Gregory scored 19 of her season-high 22 points in the second half and made five 3-pointers on the night.
“Every time I called her name or her number, she came through,” Insell said of Gregory. “Every single time. You know, she’s not been shooting well but I didn’t care. Do you know why? Because she’s a winner.”
Anastasiia Boldyreva was up to the task of battling Tennessee’s size in the post as she finished with 17 points, nine rebounds and seven blocks. Boldyreva deterred the Lady Vol guards from driving to the rim because of her shot-altering abilities.
Boldyreva was also a big reason the Lady Raiders outrebounded Tennessee 22-12 in the first half. MTSU ended the game outrebounding Tennessee 37-30.
“When I said we have to take some ownership, that’s one of the areas,” Tennessee head coach Kellie Harper said. “Our rebounding, we emphasize it, we practice it, we work on it every single day and we’ve got to start making some strides on the boards in games.”
MTSU turned 11 Tennessee turnovers into 15 points. The Lady Raiders were also able to get out and run on some of those turnovers, racking up 13 fastbreak points.
The win was MTSU’s first win over the Lady Vols in 16 games.
Calvin White is the sports editor of 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.
