Middle Tennessee women’s basketball pulled off its first win of the season, beating Tennessee State 59-53, in front of 5,876 fans, majority of whom were Murfreesboro city school students and Lady Raider loyalists.
Sophomore guard Savannah Davis and transfer senior Alayna Contreras ultimately put the team on their backs in the final two minutes as MTSU struggled with the early wakeup call dealing with foul trouble, a poor third quarter but they do have positives to look forward to.
“This is the way it’s going to be all year,” head coach Rick Insell said. “I thought we had everything in pretty much control early on and then we quit running our offenses and when we quit doing that, started freelancing, they got more aggressive, got up in us and thought they did a heck of a job.”
Through three quarters Tennessee State trailed by one point and took its first lead 32 seconds into the fourth quarter, 45-44. The Tigers extended the lead to five points until the Lady Raiders tied it with five minutes left on the way to close out the victory.
In the final two minutes, Davis jumped into a passing lane, stealing the ball and pushing it up court for an easy lay-in to take back the lead. Davis and Contreras then iced the game with individual trips to the free throw line.
“She’d (Davis) just gave up a layup by making a bad pass, but she came back, got up the line and made a big deflection and ran it out and scored,” Insell said. “We couldn’t have won the ball game without Savannah Davis.”
Redshirt sophomore Stanislava Kabernick’s defense shut down TSU’s offense by press defense and grabbing rebounds. Kabernick has been in the wings waiting, practicing for three years, and she got six rebounds today, Insell said.
Though Middle Tennessee closed out the win, the Lady Raiders still have questions to answer.
Foul trouble was a factor amongst the freshmen for the Lady Raiders with four players picking up three or more fouls.
“When you don’t play defense on the perimeter, ‘you know who gets in foul trouble?’ Phifer, because they got to step up and help and stop your man. We were not playing defense on the perimeter. We were allowing them to pitch and catch, and they were taking the ball and driving it in,” Insell said.
Freshman guard Yu Han Lin picked up three fouls in the first half limiting her to 20 minutes; freshman guard Blair Baugus had four fouls and Macie Phifer fouled out with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter.
I would say it comes with the newness that we have of the team,” Contreras said. “Foul calls are called differently from high school to college, so I think we’re still adjusting but I know we’ll get there.”
The Lady Raiders offense was sound for three quarters of the game, shooting above 40% in the first, second and fourth quarter. The third quarter thought saw MTSU shoot 16.7% and 0-4 beyond the arc.
The Lady Raiders played well today but still must learn to play the game the right way; the point guards must learn how to handle the team and run the offense, Insell said.
Middle Tennessee spends the next two weeks on the road with its next game against St. Louis University on Nov. 6.
“Well, the one thing that I like right now about the fact that when you are on the road, you got to play some defense,” Insell said. “I’d say if anything the better part of what we’re doing right now is our defensive end.”
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