On Jan. 18, Middle Tennessee State University women’s basketball entered its game against Western Kentucky on the longest Conference USA winning streak the league had ever seen at 33 straight games.
Despite leading by nine at the half of that contest, the Lady Raiders lost the lead as WKU scored 21 points off turnovers and marched to a 63-58 upset victory.
Less than a month later, on Feb. 15, the Lady Raiders got their revenge.
Middle Tennessee defeated the Hilltoppers 73-63 at the Murphy Center on Saturday, in another edition of the 100 Miles of Hate.
“If you paid your money to get in today you saw a heck of a game,” head coach Rick Insell said. “They played hard, we played hard, that’s what it’s all about.”
On top of Saturday being another chapter in the historic rivalry, hearing the talk surrounding the previous WKU loss helped the team get up for this game even more than usual, senior guard Courtney Blakely said.
Since falling at the hands of the Lady Hilltoppers back in mid-January, Middle Tennessee (18-6, 11-1 CUSA) has been on a tear in conference play. Over the last month, MTSU is 7-0 with an average margin of victory of 13.5 points.
With the conference win streak record behind them, the Lady Raiders have returned to dominant form. Avenging the lone CUSA loss to Western Kentucky on the road gives this group even more confidence going forward, junior guard Ta’Mia Scott said.
“This [Western Kentucky] was the only [conference] team that beat us so far, well, will be the only team that has beat us and I feel like our momentum from this game can definitely carry on,” Scott said. “We just came back 10 times more aggressive, so, it gave us the confidence to know that we can do it and continue to keep dominating.”
Scott finished Saturday afternoon’s contest as the game’s leading scorer with 24 total points. She currently leads the Lady Raiders this season with 421 points on the year.
Middle Tennessee heads into the final three weeks of play with six regular season games remaining. Now three games ahead of third place Western Kentucky and a half game ahead of second place Liberty, the Lady Raiders are excited to be where they are at, Insell said.
Next up for MTSU is a road trip to Ruston, Louisiana to face Louisiana Tech on Thursday, Feb. 20. The Lady Raiders defeated the Lady Techsters 61-43 in their first meeting of the season at the Murphy Center.
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