FINAL:
MTSU 65
UTSA 60
SAN ANTONIO Texas. – Three seconds; that was the difference in going to overtime on the road vs a UTSA team at the bottom of The Conference USA standings or losing to that same Roadrunners team. A last second three-point attempt was buried by Japhet Medor to seal the latter for Middle and send them home to Murfreesboro with a disappointing loss.
JOHN BUGGS III WINS IT AT THE BUZZER FOR UTSA 🚨
(via @UTSAMBB)pic.twitter.com/bnnwnLRa7R
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) January 6, 2023
This is a game that MTSU undoubtedly believes they could have and frankly should have won. While being beaten in almost every statistically measurable category in the first half, and only three starters scoring for a combined 15 points, Middle still only found itself down by six. That was not an insurmountable task for the second half.
The first momentum shift came after MTSU had cut the UTSA lead to three at 37-40. A foul was called on Teafale Lenard Jr. and a TV timeout was called. Coming back from the break, a technical foul had been assessed to Lenard along with the shooting foul. The Roadrunners made all four free throw attempts and extended the lead to seven. UTSA went on to double that seven-point lead before The Blue Raiders next score and continue to add on until they had their largest lead of the night of 17 points with 8:19 to go. 60-43 72
MTSU then won the next eight minutes and sixteen seconds 29-12, tying the game at 72 with just 13 seconds remaining, but the final three points in those last 13 seconds were all that mattered as Medor lost his defender for the winning three pointer.
Eli Lawrence led MTSU with 20 points, while UTSA’s Jacob Germany led all scorers with 23. Lawrence also led MTSU with six rebounds while Germany led all players with 11.
This is what MTSU Head Coach, Nick McDevitt, had to say post-game (via goblueraiders.com)
“I liked our fight in the last six to eight minutes of the game. I didn’t like our fight in the first 30 to 32 minutes of the game. I just thought we were trading baskets. I thought they were the tougher team. You look at ‘effort’ stats, ‘toughness’ stats, they won them all, whether it was points in the paint, or rebounds – they played a 2-3 zone for the majority of the game, and we had 14 turnovers. I just thought we were too lackadaisical. And all of a sudden, you look up, and we’re down 15, 16 points, and you’ve dug a real big hole. We started being aggressive on both ends at that point. We tied the game, and the kid hit an incredible shot.”
The Blue Raiders’ next game is against North Texas, at home, at 5:00pm on Saturday.
