MTSU women’s basketball (13-11, 8-4 CUSA) held on to a double-digit lead to sweep Jacksonville State University (12-12, 6-6 CUSA) in the regular season, 57-48.
Middle Tennessee led 14-1 midway through the first quarter with Jax State’s lone point coming at the free throw line. The Lady Raiders kept a double-digit lead through the rest of the quarter and most of the game.
The second quarter saw the Jax State offense wake up and outscore the Lady Raiders 18-12 in the frame, centered around the deep ball.
“We’ll get up with a chance to maybe build on that, and then we’ll do something ourselves to let them back in,” head coach Rick Insell said. “…We gave up two threes in a row with the same player and then let them drive across the middle and they broke us down and got another two or three of that. And then they’re right back in it.”
JSU scored back-to-back three pointers from Maria Sanchez-Ponce and Mina Djurdjevic, pulling the Gamecocks within four points of the MTSU lead.
Four points were the closest Jax State got throughout the game with the last instance coming just after halftime with redshirt senior Eden Sample finishing a layup with 8:34 left in the third.
Though the Gamecocks never got closer, they started the final quarter down by two possessions while in the midst of a scoring run. MTSU guard Alayna Contreras fouled Jax’s Adriana Jones on a fastbreak; Jones went on to go 1-of-2 at the line.
Middle Tennessee took an early timeout in the fourth quarter after a Contreras layup to reset the tone on defense.
“What our goal was with the press was just to slow them down on offense because they were pretty much using a lot of the shot clock on offense and it was kind of getting us tired,” point guard Kirston Verhulst said.
From the press, MTSU held the Gamecocks to eight points for the final 8:34. On the offensive end, the Lady Raiders went on their final run, extending the lead to a game high 14 points.
“We held a pretty good team to 48 points,” Insell said. “So, I shouldn’t be complaining but they probably should have been in the lower 40s or 30s.”
Freshman guard Yu Han Lin continued to see quality minutes, for her fourth straight game in double digits with her impact coming on the defensive side of the ball.
Lin flies around the court and in a game like tonight MTSU needed that on the defensive end, Insell said.
The Lady Raiders will welcome Kennesaw State University on Feb. 14, as MTSU looks for another conference sweep. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. CDT.
To contact the Sports editor, email [email protected].
Follow Sidelines on Facebook at Facebook.com/MTSUSidelines, on X @mtsusidelines and Instagram @mtsusidelines. Sign up for our weekly newsletter here.
