Middle Tennessee women’s basketball (10-9, 5-2) fell short against the University of Delaware (8-10, 2-4), 61-48 as head coach Rick Insell’s 500th career win will have to wait at least one more day.
What could have been a night of celebration for MTSU turned into a quick collapse against the Conference USA newcomer Blue Hens.
“I would hope not, but you can’t worry about what’s going on with me,” Insell said regarding any added pressure to the game. “You got to worry about what’s going on with the program…We got to play better than that right there, though.”
Middle Tennessee started slow out of the gate in front of a packed crowd anticipating a win. Through the first 6:26, Delaware’s Ande’a Cherisier had 10 points while the Lady Raiders had only eight. Cherisier finished the quarter beating Middle Tennessee while the Blue Hens led 20-11.
“They come in, they got aggressive with us down low,” Insell said. “They kept us from running what we wanted to run. They did a good job. We didn’t put the ball in the hole and next thing you know it’s out of control.”
Delaware’s defense shut down freshman guard Blair Baugus, who has been the nucleus of the MTSU offense. Baugus picked up two fouls in the first quarter and then two in the third quarter while shooting 2-of-7.
The shots were not falling for any of the other Lady Raiders as they shot 17-of-57 from the field and 4-of-26 from behind the arc.
The third quarter was especially rough as Middle Tennessee scored just two points, both on free throws from Macie Phifer and Alayna Contreras.
“It;s an embarrassment to be down that much, and we know how good we are and we weren’t playing to that level,” sophomore guard Savannah Davis said.
MTSU made a final push in the fourth quarter with a 23-point performance cutting the lead down to 12 points with 3:47 left in the game. The Lady Raiders mixed in runs of 11 and six points while running a full court press defense, but two back-to-back missed three pointers shut down any last-minute comeback.
Middle Tennessee’s next game against Liberty University was moved up due to the impending winter weather, so the Lady Raiders have a quick 24 hour turn around before the Flames come to town. Tipoff is set for set for 6:30 p.m. CDT on Jan. 23 inside the Murphy Center.
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