Rutherford Times

Middle Tennessee men's basketball jumped out of the gates after halftime, putting together a 14-3 run to start the second half and following it up with a 16-3 run later in the frame to roll over UTSA 84-60 on Saturday night in the Murphy Center.

 

The Blue Raiders (15-9, 8-5 C-USA) held a six-point advantage at halftime but left no doubt after the break against the Roadrunners' (7-18, 1-13 C-USA) 2-3 zone, finding plenty of space in the middle to attack the rim or kick out to open threes, making 7-of-their-13 three-point attempts in the second half.

 

The zone defense helped UTSA get rebounds early, but MTSU turned up its rebounding intensity against the worst defensive rebounding team in the conference, snagging 44 rebounds, including 20 boards on the offensive glass. The Blue Raider defense was active all night, turning the Roadrunners over 20 times (nine on MTSU steals), resulting in 27 points off turnovers.

 

Camryn Weston, Teafale Lenard and Jestin Porter all scored 13 points, tying to lead all scorers on both benches on Saturday. Weston added six rebounds, two assists and a steal, while Lenard hauled in four boards, swiped two steals and swatted two blocks. DeAndre Dishman led all rebounders with seven boards to go along with seven points and an assist.

 

By the Numbers

 

7-for-13: Three-Point shooting for MTSU in the second half. It's the second game in a row MTSU shot over 50 percent from beyond the arc in the second half of a game (3-for-5, UTEP).

 

20: Offensive Rebounds for Middle Tennessee, their most of the season in a single game. The Blue Raiders had 15 offensive rebounds at the half and scored 16 second chance points as a team.

 

7: Blue Raiders scoring at least seven points on Saturday night, with six Blue Raiders scoring at least eight points and three different MTSU players tying for lead in scoring with 13 points. A total of 11 different Blue Raiders scored on Saturday.

 

Blue Raider Notes

• Middle Tennessee still has never lost to UTSA twice in the same season.
• The Blue Raiders shot .512 (66-129) from the floor during their two-game home stand this week.
• All 14 active Blue Raiders saw action Saturday night.

Thoughts from Head Coach Nick McDevitt

 

"It's a good win for us. I thought we were particularly good in the second half defensively. The first 12 or 13 minutes, it was about a point a minute defensively. I just thought were a bit more tuned in and aggressive on that end of the floor. We also did a nice job of taking care of the ball...There weren't a ton of careless turnovers against their zone, which they played quite a bit of."

 

Player's Perspective – Jestin Porter

 

On what clicked as MTSU broke down UTSA's 2-3 zone

 

"We started playing like us. Pushing the ball more, sharing the ball more. Everybody got looks and everything fell into place." 

Original source can be found here