Feature Photo by Paige Mast
Story by Jacob Burgess
The University of Tennessee regained the volunteer state women’s basketball crown.
Middle Tennessee women’s basketball fell to in-state rival Tennessee in its first loss of the season on Tuesday night.
Middle Tennessee showed its flaws in its toughest regular season game thus far, by not handling the full-court press, struggling to grab defensive rebounds and getting out hustled.
Full court shutdown
The Lady Vols started the game in a half-court defense, which Middle Tennessee was playing well against, able to drive to the basket repeatedly. Tennessee took a timeout midway through the first quarter coming out in the full court press.
The Lady Vols’ press caused havoc for Middle Tennessee for the rest of the first half. The Volunteers guards were on top of MTSU point guard Courtney Blakely from the inbound.
In the second quarter, MTSU guards Blakely and Jalynn Gregory struggled to move the ball up the court. The struggle did not end once the ball got across the midcourt line, when the Vols moved to a half-court press defense.
Intense pressure from the Lady Vols caused a total of 20 turnovers throughout the game. Middle Tennessee didn’t start to figure out the press until the third quarter.
Coming out of halftime the Blue Raiders trailed by 11. Middle Tennessee played its best basketball in the third quarter, winning the quarter by one point. MTSU had a small comeback early in the fourth quarter until the Lady Vols changed the defense again going with a small ball lineup.
There wasn’t much change after halftime. They were moving the ball up the court and the plan was to get it to center Anastasiia Boldyreva more, but no big game plan changes were made at the break, head coach Rich Insell said.
The boards got snapped
Tennessee outclassed MTSU on the boards with 19 offensive rebounds and 21 defensive rebounds.
Middle Tennessee failed to box out regardless of the position, with Tennessee guards Ruby Whitehorn and Talaysia Cooper getting five offensive rebounds each. Tennessee earned second chances time and time again.
Tennessee flew in for every missed shot poking the ball out of the Blue Raiders hands giving them more offensive attempts. The Lady Vols scored 13 points off of second point attempts.
“Of course, from the beginning we need to box out every single person from point guard to post players and fight for them,” Boldyreva said.
Getting out hustled
Insell and Tennessee head coach Kim Caldwell ran their respective in game rotations in completely different ways.
Insell runs his trusted players which is seven to eight players with starters playing as many minutes as possible. Caldwell in her first season has no limit to the number of players she sends out there. Tennessee’s coach subbed the whole floor off at times against MTSU.
Caldwell will have to find her trusted players when it comes to SEC play and the tournament later in the year, Insell said.
The Tennessee rotation kept the Lady Vols fresh during the thick of the game when Tennessee was pressing non-stop, causing turnovers and moving up and down the floor.
Tennessee had nine players who played double digit minutes which across college basketball is not wild practice. None of Caldwell starters played more than 30 minutes while Insell’s starters played at least 32 minutes with Anastasiia Boldyreva and Gregory playing all 40 minutes.
At the end of the day, both coaches might be wrong in how they rotate players and until playoff time comes around who knows what method best long term is.
Jacob Burgess is the lead sports reporter for MTSU Sidelines
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