After losing to Jacksonville State in the Conference USA semifinals, MTSU forward Essam Mostafa wasn’t sure he’d get the chance to play for the Blue Raiders again.
But on Tuesday night, Mostafa and a slew of Middle Tennessee seniors, earned a last ride together in the first round of the National Invitational Tournament (NIT). While coming to terms with MTSU’s semifinal defeat, taking the Murphy Center floor with his teammates brought him joy once more, Mostafa said.
“Hearing coach tell us that we’re going to play in the NIT, I was like okay, another shot, another game,” Mostafa said. “I’m excited again, you know. Every day being with these guys here is fun.”
In what became MTSU’s final game of the season, Mostafa and company earned more than just 40 extra minutes of playing time. Trailing Chattanooga 84-82 with 10 seconds remaining, Middle Tennessee head coach Nick McDevitt called timeout to draw up a final play.
In the waning ticks of regulation MTSU relied on another senior, inbounding the ball to Camryn Weston, who drove to the basket before drawing a foul. Having scored 25 points up to that moment, the game lied in his hands with four seconds to go.
Weston calmly drilled both free throws to send the game to overtime, all while trying not to get distracted by himself on the jumbotron.
“I just pretty much tried not to focus on the big screen behind us,” Weston said. “I’m not going to lie man, a lot of times it’ll mess you up just seeing it through the glass screen, through the backboard. I really don’t think too much at the free throw line, I just take my time, do my regular routine. It just came up big for me.”
After the free throws gave Weston 27, he added four points in the extra periods, with his last coming as a two-pointer with 1:01 left in the second overtime. Weston’s jumper gave Middle Tennessee a 94-93 lead and marked a career-high of 31 points.
Amidst a career best performance, Weston stepped out of bounds on MTSU’s next possession, turning the ball over to the Mocs. On the ensuing inbound, Weston reached over the back of Chattanooga’s Garrison Keeslar, picking up his fifth foul of the game and unbeknownst to him, fouling out.
“To be real I didn’t even know I fouled out, they had to tell me that I fouled out,” Weston said. “I was just so much in the game that I didn’t even know it myself. Just giving my all to this team tonight, is just indescribable man. They have my back; I have their back each and every day.”
Checking out of the game as a Blue Raider for the final time, Weston received a standing ovation from an announced Murphy Center crowd of 3,505. Despite the night not ending in MTSU’s favor, Weston wouldn’t have wanted to see the team go out any other way.
“Obviously, you don’t come in playing the best that you can play every single night, but today was just a good night for us and I told them on the radio that this is the best way to go out,” Weston said. “Not as far as my performance but just how we played today as a team, that shows a lot just for us as a team and as a whole.”
Following Keeslar’s free throws, Middle Tennessee trailed Chattanooga 97-94. With 27 seconds to go in double overtime, the rest of the period was all Mostafa. MTSU’s forward threw down a dunk on the other end to bring the Blue Raiders within one before fouling UTC’s Collin Mulholland on the next possession.
Mulholland hit both free throws to cushion Chattanooga’s lead at 99-96 with 16 seconds remaining. Eight ticks later, Mostafa struck again, hitting a three-pointer to tie the game at 99-99.
“In my head, I know I’m going to make it,” Mostafa said. “I got the ball I saw the clock going down, I know I don’t take a lot of them [three-pointers], but I have no problem shooting them. I said in my head; I want to do whatever it takes to keep going and I feel in that moment I had to take that shot.”
Mostafa wasn’t kidding when he said that he doesn’t shoot very many threes. The big man’s clutch three-point basket counted as just his fifth make on 11 attempts this season.
Despite Mostafa’s heroics forcing a third overtime, Middle Tennessee’s offense was unable to hold on without Weston. The Mocs outscored the Blue Raiders 10-4 in the final frame on the way to a 109-103 triple overtime victory.
Weston and Mostafa combined for 61 points with senior Jestin Porter coming in third on MTSU’s scoresheet, adding 19 points of his own. Mostafa picked up his 14th double-double of the season with 30 points and 16 rebounds.
While Tuesday night and more specifically, Middle Tennessee’s 2024 season didn’t end in the way he wanted it to, McDevitt was proud of the toughness his team displayed through the long stretching season.
“[We] took a hard loss on Friday in the semifinals of our tournament, and to kind of bounce back with the right energy you’ve got to have to beat a team like that [Chattanooga], play in a tournament like this, just couldn’t be more proud,” McDevitt said. “Disappointed in the result but man, this group was really fun, really fun to coach and be around.”
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