Middle Tennessee women’s basketball (13-6, 5-1 CUSA) bounced back with a win over Sam Houston (8-9, 1-6 CUSA), 66-38.
The Lady Raiders stifled the Bearkats’ offense with a new-look lineup. Emily Monson started for Middle Tennessee, while Elina Arike sat with an undisclosed injury.
“Coach Matt pulled me into his office on Monday and said if I don’t mess anything up then I should be fine,” Monson said. “As soon as the ball tipped, I was good, trying to focus on defense and rebounding.”
Monson rotated in the fourth spot with Stanislava Kabernick, adding a combined five points. Plus-minus showed that both players’ time on the court was productive as Monson had a plus-minus of nine and Kabernick with an 11.
The traditional small ball lineup for MTSU raised concern of giving up offensive rebounds, the Bearkats pulled 15 boards and scored nine second-chance points.
In such a long season, the team can’t worry about losing someone to injury. So, when those injuries occur, it’s next man up, head coach Rick Insell said.
“The last time I had a situation like that, there was a young lady by the name of Charity Savage,” Insell said. “She started every game in her career the rest of her life, and ended up getting 14-15 rebounds a night. When an opportunity presents itself, the next man has got to step up there and be ready to go.”
The Lady Raiders got back on track against the Bearkats coming off the program’s first conference loss of the season to Western Kentucky on Jan. 18. Despite the Hilltoppers breaking MTSU’s record 33-game CUSA winning streak, Insell didn’t let the loss linger.
“I didn’t even look at the film and I’ll be honest with you I haven’t looked at the Western (Kentucky) film, I have no intentions of looking at it until we play them again,” Insell said.
MTSU hosts LA Tech (11-7, 4-3 CUSA) on Saturday, Jan. 25. The Lady Techsters sit in fourth place in the conference but own a 1-6 road record.
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