Featured photo by Savion Davis
Story by Calvin White
MURFREESBORO, Tenn- Problems that have plagued Middle Tennessee all season reappeared in a 75-65 home loss to Belmont.
Bad perimeter defense leads to bad interior defense. If MTSU’s goal was to let Belmont’s guards into the paint the entire game, they succeeded mightily.
MTSU has allowed at least 38 points in the paint to its opponents in all six of its losses. Belmont only attempted 12 3-pointers but made six of them. The bulk of the Bruins’ offense came from below the free-throw line and MTSU couldn’t stop it.
“We have to be more forceful getting through screens and dribble handoffs,” MTSU head coach Nick McDevitt said. “Having some rim protection without fouling. Right now, we’re keeping teams off the 3-point line but they’re getting easy shots at the rim.”
The Blue Raiders’ offense went stagnant at times and wasn’t making Belmont’s defense work to guard. This led to easy runouts for the Bruins and long scoreless stretches for MTSU.
After Elias King made a free throw to put MTSU ahead 24-20, Belmont went on a 10-0 run to take a 30-24 lead. Bad shots and turnovers by the Blue Raiders allowed Belmont to have easy scoring opportunities.
Justin Bufford and Jalen Jordan took 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions in which MTSU only made one pass and did not run the offense. A bad shot is the first pass in an opponent’s fastbreak and Belmont was able to get easy rebounds which led to easy layups.
“We said it during the huddles, at halftime, and at the end of the game,” McDevitt said. “We didn’t make them (Belmont) guard. We were working to build a lead and we got reckless and it burned us.”
Elias King scored 21 of his 27 points in the first half on 8-of-13 shooting and 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. No other Blue Raider scored more than five points in the first half. King was able to keep MTSU afloat as Belmont took a 38-30 lead into halftime.
The second half was a different story for King. The MTSU guard only scored six points on 1-of-4 shooting. In the final 20 minutes, King’s shots weren’t coming in the flow of the offense like they were in the second half.
“”We couldn’t get the ball to go,” King said. “We had a couple turnovers and like coach Nick (McDevitt) said, I had a couple floaters in the paint instead of landing on two feet and going up strong.”
At various times throughout the season, MTSU’s offense has stalled and led to long stretches in games where the Blue Raiders don’t score and let their opponent take a commanding lead.
Belmont’s defense is the kind of defense that is ready to pounce if its opponent takes one too many dribbles. By over-dribbling and holding the ball on offense, MTSU was allowing Belmont to take away passing lanes and open shot attempts.
“Over-bouncing it and holding the ball,” McDevitt said. “A combination of the two. There wasn’t crisp, sharp ball movement. We have to do a better job of coaching that because we had guys that held it then tried to beat their guy off the bounce.”
MTSU has four games left until it starts conference play. If the Blue Raiders don’t clean up the mistakes that have cost them games all season, multiple teams in Conference USA will do to them what Belmont did.
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.
