Middle Tennessee men’s basketball (5-4) suffered its first home loss of the year as the Belmont University Bruins (9-1) took over the Murphy Center in an 83-62 win.
One of the Blue Raiders’ closest regional rivals, the Bruins shot over 50% from the field while MTSU was held to 31.3% on the floor.
“We just didn’t shoot the ball particularly well… obviously an understatement,” McDevitt said with a chuckle post-game.
The Blue Raiders faltered shooting from the field in the loss to one of its closest rivals. MTSU went 8-for-38 from behind the arc, while shooting 21-of-67 total.
“When that’s the case, you’ve got to get darn near everything right defensively,” McDevitt said. “You’ve got to get almost every rebound. And we didn’t do that… when you’re not shooting it well you have to find other ways to generate points.”
Middle Tennessee’s offense hung tight with Belmont in the first half, as the Bruins took a 35-31 point lead into the break. The Blue Raiders were still inefficient from the field with a 27.8% field goal percentage, but the defense caused eight turnovers while going 6-of-8 from the free throw line.
This flipped in the second half, as MTSU couldn’t string together more than four consecutive points out of the break.
Belmont packed the paint against MTSU, leaving opportunities outside the arc for the Blue Raiders. Middle Tennessee tried to take advantage of this by attempting over half of its shots from behind the arc.
This limited shots for some of the Blue Raiders’ interior players, such as center Chris Loofe and forward Torey Alston.
Alston scored a game-high 14 points for the Blue Raiders, with eight of those coming from the free throw line.
“We just overdribbled the ball a little bit,” Alston said. “There could have been times where we would have took one dribble, get off the ball and find an easier shot, except we were dribbling the ball. Once we passed it, Belmont recovered and it was a tough shot.”
McDevitt sees a team’s total scoring output as a key for winning with current trends in college basketball around the country.
“In 2025, you’ve also got to be able to score the ball,” McDevitt said. “There’s not too many teams winning games 68-59 because across the country almost everybody’s playing a fast, up-tempo style of play.”
Belmont rocked its up-tempo offense to get two big scoring streaks in the second half to grow its lead over the Blue Raiders.
From the 14:30 mark to the 13:30 mark, the Bruins knocked down two three-pointers and a layup for an 8-0 run.
Following Belmont’s streak, Middle Tennessee’s Kamari Lands knocked down a jumper to bring MTSU within nine points, with 11:35 to play.
The Bruins responded with a 12-0 run from the 11:18 mark until MTSU’s Sean Smith hit a mid-range shot with 7:56 to play.
Guards Nic McClain and Tyler Lundblade led the way with 20 and 15 points each, with six combined threes from the Belmont backcourt duo.
“Lundblade made the toughest shot I thought anybody took on the night,” McDevitt said. “He comes off a pin down that we defended quite well, and he just bangs it in. When that happens, that just lets you know how good you’ve got to be at the other stuff.”
As out of conference play begins to slow down, MTSU is taking advantage of a strong schedule that has featured top-70 NET ranked teams such as Belmont, McNeese State, George Washington University and No. 1 Michigan.
“You find out a lot about yourself,” McDevitt said. “… You’re talking about 360 some teams, and you’re playing one of the hardest non-conference schedules of anybody.
MTSU will have the next ten days off, before hosting Conference USA rival Kennesaw State for the Blue Raiders first league matchup of the season on Dec. 17 in the Murphy Center.
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