Featured photo by Erin Douglas
Story by Calvin White
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BATON ROUGE, La- Middle Tennessee women’s basketball’s season comes to an end in the second round of the NCAA Tournament after an 83-56 loss to LSU at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
For the first 20 minutes, the Blue Raiders (30-5) hung tough with the Tigers (30-5.) Savannah Wheeler was getting to the rim and MTSU was getting out in transition. Ta’Mia Scott knocked in three 3-pointers on her way to 13 first-half points as MTSU led the Tigers 36-32 at halftime.
“Just getting downhill,” Wheeler said of MTSU’s early offensive success. “Trying to get downhill and make them (LSU) commit a foul. I’d say in the first half some of us did hit some shots but in the second half it kind of went downhill.”
The momentum shifted midway through the third quarter in favor of the Tigers. LSU outscored MTSU 27-13 in the frame and completely neutralized what MTSU was trying to do on offense. The Tigers’ physicality on the interior gave them the edge in the final 20 minutes.
Once LSU made a couple shots to start the second half to gain momentum, every time MTSU had the ball on offense, the sold-out Pete Maravich Assembly Center crowd came to its feet and roared in an attempt to make things harder for the Blue Raiders.
LSU outscored MTSU 51-20 in the second half and held the Blue Raiders to 8-of-29 shooting in the final two quarters.
At the end of the third quarter, MTSU had four players with at least three fouls and Anastasiia Boldyreva fouled out with less than a minute to play in the third quarter.
MTSU’s foul trouble mixed with LSU’s shot-making helped the Tigers to continue stretching their lead. A four-point lead at halftime quickly turned into a deficit as much as 30 for MTSU.
“We just had some mental mistakes,” Courtney Whitson said. “We knew in games like this that we can’t let one mental mistake lead to another. I think once they made that push on us, we continued to make mental mistakes.”
At halftime, the foul calls were 13-8 in favor of LSU. In the second half, MTSU was whistled for 18 fouls to LSU’s eight and LSU shot 37 free throws to MTSU’s nine.
By the time the game was over, MTSU had three starters foul out. MTSU head coach Rick Insell then delivered what was most likely his shortest opening statement of the season after the game.
“I’ve been doing this for about 48 years and I can remember one or two games like this,” Insell said. “It’s hard to overcome 37 free throws to nine. That’s my opening statement.”
MTSU’s season ends as the second-best in program history by overall record. The Blue Raiders finished 30-4 in 2006-07 compared to 30-5 this season.
Despite the loss, the Lady Raiders broke countless records and produced so many memorable moments. This season’s team will go down as one of, if not the best, team in the history of MTSU women’s basketball. An undefeated conference record, an 18-point comeback win in round one followed by a hard-fought 25 minutes with the defending national champions.
MTSU’s first loss in nearly three months marks an end to Courtney Whitson and Savannah Wheeler’s MTSU careers and the end of a historic season. Insell assured everyone in the postgame press conference that MTSU would be back.
“We’ll be back,” Insell said. “We’ve got a good group coming around. We’ve got some good recruits. We’ll be back.”
Calvin White is the sports editor for MTSU Sidelines. For more news, visit www.mtsusidelines.com, and follow us on Facebook at MTSU Sidelines and on X and Instagram at @mtsusidelines. Also, sign up for our weekly newsletter here.
