MTSU took a 40-34 lead at the half over the No. 1 team in the country
Knoxville, Tenn. – After an 11-0 start to the season for No. 1 Tennessee, Middle Tennessee State University looked to play spoiler.
Tennessee doubled MTSU’s points in the second half, outscoring the Raiders 48-24 to complete the comeback win over the Blue Raiders.
Three takeaways from too close for comfort 82-64 win over the Blue Raiders.
The Vols are 12-0 for the third time in program history.
1. Tennessee did not have an answer for Camryn Weston.
His last bucket of the first half was a dagger.
With Felix Okpara’s hand in his face, Weston hit a step-back three-pointer from the wing with 00:12 left in the half to give MTSU a 40-34 lead at the break.
That bucket was his fourth straight-made shot. He only missed three of his attempts in the first 20 minutes of the game.
In 12 minutes of play, he registered 17 points, two rebounds, and two steals.
Weston continued to make an impact in the second half.
After Igor Milicic missed his three-point attempt, Essam Mostafa grabbed the defensive rebound, dished it to Camrym for another fastbreak three-pointer.
MTSU capitalized on another defensive rebound as Camryn sank another triple to give the Blue Raiders the lead back at 49-46 with 14:02 remaining.
2. MTSU erased their deficit in the final 6 minutes of first half.
Following a missed layup by Jordan Gainey, and Tennessee’s inability to get the offensive rebound, MTSU’s Torey Alston snagged the defensive board, dished it to Weston for a fastbreak three with 6:22 remaining.
That bucket marked MTSU’s fourth straight bucket in just over three minutes.
Over the next three minutes, MTSU would find its first lead of the game.
Jestin Porter sank a three-pointer to make it 32-30 with 3:06 remaining.
At the 2:15 mark, MTSU was 7 of its last 9 FGs, UT went 1 over its last 8 FG attempts.
That seventh bucket was a contested three at the top of the arc by Tre Green, Jahmai Mashack couldn’t have played better defense, but still sank the triple.
Those three points came after kicking it out from the post and getting it around the horn to Green for his first bucket of the game.
On the ensuing possession, Chaz Lanier in transition with less than 00:10 left in the half, sat at the top of the arc and was not able to get the shot off before the buzzer hit double zeros.
Tennessee entered the locker room trailing for the first time this season.
They did all they could to hold onto that lead in the final 20.
With 13:02 to go, Jlynn Counter sank a long ranger jumper to make it 51-48 and as Counter got back for defense, he hushed the crowd in transition.
3. A strong second-half start for the Vols proved the be the difference.
Tennessee made four of its first five attempts to start the second half with three being layups right at the rim.
That cut MTSU’s six-point lead to one point with 16:53 to go.
Jordan Gainey tied the game at 46 with a three-pointer from the wing
Possibly the biggest play of the game, came when Zakai Zeigler came up with a massive heads-up play.
As he crosses the three-point line and sees the lane collapsing, he keeps his forward momentum but does a backward bounce pass to Lanier behind him.
A quick catch and shoot by Lanier had Vols Fans erupting from their seats as Tennessee took the 55-51 lead with 11:53 left in the game.
That triple capped a 7-0 run over 00:58 and MTSU called an immediate timeout.
Tennessee mounted another 11-1 run over 4:35 with 4:19 left in the game.
A Lanier layup followed by a Gainey fast break three-pointer helped put Tennessee up by 11 to tie its largest lead of the game.
Milicic came up with an athletic rebound as he lunged out of bounds to save the possession after a Gainey block with about 2 minutes to go in the game.
Mashack had the exclamation point as he pulled up from the three-point line to give Tennessee its final score of the game as Tennessee went on to win 82-64.
That was just his seventh made-three on the season
