Middle Tennessee men’s basketball made it two wins in a row Saturday with a 75-63 win over Stephen F. Austin in the Northern Classic at Place Bell. Three Blue Raiders scored in double figures in the win.
Withstanding intense SFA defensive pressure, Middle Tennessee put some distance between itself and the Lumberjacks with a 15-2 run in the first half. Jestin Porter scored 13 of his team-leading 19 points in the second half as MTSU was 16-for-20 from the free throw line in the second half to put the game on ice.
DeAndre Dishman added 17 points and a team-leading six rebounds. Eli Lawrence added 12 points and five rebounds in the winning effort.
By the Numbers
.583: Dishman, Lawrence and Porter combined to shoot .583 (14-24) from the floor Saturday.
3: Elias King set a career high in blocks for the second straight game, sending back three SFA attempts.
8: MTSU’s eight blocks were its second most in a game this season and tied for the 14th-most in program history.
Blue Raider Notes
- MTSU is now 8-2 in neutral site games since the start of the 2021-22 season, having been 1-15 in the previous four seasons.
- The Blue Raiders won back-to-back games for the first time in 2022-23.
- Teafale Lenard, Jr.’s three blocks were a season high and gave him the 16th multi-block game of his career.
Thoughts from Head Coach Nick McDevitt
“We told the team coming into the game that… the turnovers are coming. You can’t have repeated mistakes. You can’t let one or two mistakes turn into three or four. Fortunately, this is a tough team. You’ve got to be tough with the ball, but you’ve got to be tough mentally.”
Up Next
The Blue Raiders close out the Northern Classic against Montana State at 12:30 p.m. Central on Sunday.
Follow the Blue Raiders
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