Despite a never-before-seen performance on the Murphy Center floor, the Blue Raiders fell short Thursday night.
With the race towards the regular season’s end coming down to the wire, Middle Tennessee men’s basketball (20-10, 11-6 CUSA) lost to Liberty University (24-6, 12-5 CUSA) with a chance at the top spot in Conference USA on the line.
In a career night, forward Essam Mostafa put up 30 points and 20 rebounds in the first 30-20 game in MTSU men’s basketball history. Despite being a key contributor this season, Mostafa’s performance was anything but the norm.
“His ordinary is 17 [points] and 11 [rebounds],” head coach Nick McDevitt said. “He’s a talented young man, competitive, he’s unorthodox a little bit, you know.”
Although McDevitt’s estimate of Mostafa is just off with his averages resting at 13.7 points per game and 8.7 rebounds, the forward has elevated the Blue Raiders as of late.
Despite this season being Mostafa’s first and only year in Murfreesboro, the graduate student feels that MTSU and his teammates have lifted him up, as well.
“They’ve helped me in every single category on the court,” Mostafa said. “I have great players around me, I have great coaches, I’m just happy to be here. I just wish we got the dub.”
In an important stretch, the Blue Raiders did not get the “dub,” falling to the Flames 86-81. Thursday night’s loss eliminates MTSU from contention for the regular season Conference USA title ahead of next week’s conference tournament.
The defeat marks MTSU’s second to Liberty this season, as the Blue Raiders previously fell 73-63 in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Taelon Peter gave Middle Tennessee trouble leading the Flames with 33 points and finishing second on the team with six rebounds. Liberty finished with four different scorers in double digits.
“They’re great cutters,” McDevitt said of Liberty. “Peter is a hard cover because he’s big and strong.”
Following Thursday’s loss, the Blue Raiders will have one more home game before the conference tournament, facing off against Florida International (9-21, 3-14 CUSA) on Saturday, March 8.
Regardless of Middle Tennessee’s latest defeat, the Blue Raiders are playing pretty good basketball at the right time, going 5-2 in their last seven games, McDevitt said.
“I told our team, ‘We’re playing tournament style games,'” McDevitt said. “Our last three games they’re nip and tuck. They’re right down to the end. And to me, that’s a good thing. As long as they don’t get worn out doing it, it puts you in the right frame of mind to play the way you’ve got to in March.”
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