FINAL:
MTSU – 63
LA Tech – 49
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Senior Day is always a nice day for any college program as they honor the careers of those that have given their all for their team, but it’s also a sad day as you watch those beloved payers play in the familiar home colors for the last time. Middle had to say goodbye to just one senior on Saturday but Deandre Dishman was not just any senior. Dish was the backbone of the team during his time in Murfreesboro, and the Blue Raiders were looking to make his last game in The Glass House a good one to lock up a bye in the CUSA Tournament.
After a slow start from both teams offensively, Elias King entered the game for Middle and electrified the Raiders on the offensive side of the floor. Middle kept doing what they were doing defensively, continued to rebound well, and took firm control of the game. Tech was forced to call timeout after a King dunk that capped off a 15-2 run for the Blue Raiders.
.@eliasking15 SLAMS it home for the McGuire Management DUNK, and it’s a 15-2 run for the #BlueRaiders! Timeout, Bulldogs!
MT 27-12 | 6:32 1H pic.twitter.com/1Au29zVSn9
— MT Basketball (@MT_MBB) February 25, 2023
Middle began to pour in the points and The Bulldogs looked defeated. On the back of a 50% half from the field and 7-16 from three MTSU took a 20-point lead into the locker room. Coming out for the second, Middle started off the half the way they played the first. Including the highlight dunks.
LOOK OUT BELOW! 🤯@TeafaleJ adds another one to the highlight reel!
MT 41-18 | 18:50 2H pic.twitter.com/8MGR8jPQjF
— MT Basketball (@MT_MBB) February 25, 2023
At the under-12 timeout MTSU’s bench was outscoring Tech’s 21-0. After that, the tides began to shift. Middle who was once up by 29 now found themselves in a scoring drought. LA Tech chipped away at that lead on a 15-0 run. With just over five minutes to go in the game, the Blue Raiders were going to have to get back into gear up 17 or risk the Bulldogs getting all the way back into the game.
Eli Lawrence broke a long field goal drought for Middle that spanned nearly eight minutes with a layup extending the lead to 63-47 with 2:43 to play. Despite the long scoring drought, MTSU was able to get the win on Senior Day with a final score of 63-49.
Isaiah Crawford led all scorers with 17 points. Elias King led MTSU with 13. Kenny Hunter led all players with 15 rebounds with King right behind at 10. Cam Weston led all players with four assists, and Kaleb Stewart led Tech with two.
This is what Head Coach, Nick McDevitt, had to say post game via Goblueraiders.com:
“Really happy with our team over the last ten days to two weeks. I thought our prep leading up to FAU and FIU last weekend was good. That was obviously a good weekend and (this week) was another good week of getting ready for a tough LA Tech team.
“They don’t quit, they don’t go away. We looked at some of their scores in games over the last week to two weeks where they were down double-digit deficits and cut it four late in the game. We got up 29 and then we were kind of going through motions for four or five minutes. Outside of those four or five minutes, I thought we had a lot of guys that played well.
“Happy for Dish, 25-year-old, seventh-year senior. If you took that uniform off, you’d see all kinds of bandages and scars and all kinds of things to keep him put together. But he is a tough young man, happy for him to be able to finish off his home career here with a win.”
The Blue Raiders’ next game is against North Texas, in Denton, at 7:00pm on Thursday
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