By Holly Weber, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn.—The Tennessee Tech women's basketball team (1-3) fell to in-state rival Middle Tennessee (1-2) in a Saturday night matchup in the Hooper Eblen Center.
"It was a hard fought game," head coach Kim Rosamond remarked. "I credit Middle Tennessee, they are a championship program; NCAA tournament team year in and year out. But I also want to credit our kids, because from the tip I think we came out and battled. I loved our focus, effort, and our mentality."
The Golden Eagles opened with a strong first half. Middle Tennessee started off the first quarter with an 8-2 lead over Tech, however, the Golden Eagles came back within one point at 10-9 with an Asia Harper layup. Despite the Blue Raiders trying to pull ahead at 15-11, the Purple and Gold squad were determined to keep a close game and a Hannah Goolsby three pointer with 28 seconds to go in the quarter gave tech the 16-15 lead going into the second.
The Golden Eagles kept the momentum going into the second half, with Kandace "Tip" Newry opening play with a three to pull ahead further at 19-15. MTSU and Tech found themselves all tied up at 21-21, and then the Blue Raiders got a burst of energy going into the latter half of the quarter and pulled ahead by six at 27-21 with a layup from Jordan Majors with 2:13 left on the clock. MTSU added buffer to their lead late in the second with a layup by Gabby Lyon pushing the Blue Raider lead to 33-27 to end the first half.
"We went toe-to-toe with them in the first half, especially," Rosamond continued. "The second half we had trouble defensively. They went right to their bigs early and we tried to make an adjustment, but they were able to knock down some threes when they really needed it. The biggest thing that stands out to me on the stat sheet is that they scored 20 points off of our turnovers. We had 21 turnovers, which is a season-high for us this year. We hadn't been turning over the ball over like that, but we also hadn't seen pressure like that. I thought their pressure affected us. They are really strong and physical. They made it tough for us to make a pass and make a cut."
Both MTSU and Tech were shooting 44 percent at the half. The Blue Raiders corralled 20 boards to the Golden Eagle's 10, however, MTSU allowed 11 turnovers to Tech's 10.
The Blue Raiders continued to build momentum into the third quarter, pulling ahead by 11 at 42-31 with a jumper from Abbey Sissom at the 7:57 mark. The Golden Eagles continued to battle and went on a 9-6 run to cut the Blue Raider lead down to 48-40 with 2:41 on the clock. However, MTSU held on to their lead and ended the third quarter with a 52-45 advantage.
Tech would not relent and a jumper followed by a three pointer from Yaktavia "Shug" Hickson brought the Golden Eagles back within five at 63-58 with 3:23 to go in the game. MTSU answered the Hickson three with one of their own from downtown to pull ahead 66-58 with 3:03 to go. The Golden Eagles kept within nine at 6960 with a jumper by Asia Harper at the 1:42 mark, however, the Blue Raiders would not let Tech comeback and defeated the Golden Eagles 73-62.
Hickson led the Golden Eagles with 16 points and three boards. Akia Harris dished out a career-high 12 assists for the Tech, while Kandace Newry tallied eight points and a team high five boards.
Abbey Sissom led Middle Tennessee with 16 points and three assists, while teammate Alex Johnson also recorded 16 points with three boards and one block. Ty Petty and Rebecca Reuter found themselves in double figures, each totaling 12 points for the Blue Raiders.
"There are definitely some areas we need to work on and get better with, but I thought there was so much growth not only in this game, but in the last five days," Rosamond said. "I thought our offense got a whole lot better. We scored a season-high 62 points and shot 44% from the field. So I think if we can just continue focusing on growing and getting better each and every day."
As a team, Middle Tennessee shot 51 percent from the field, 36.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 73.9 percent from the line to Tech's 44.2 percent from the floor, 38.5 percent from the three-point range, and 78.6 percent from the charity stripe. The Blue Raiders grabbed 30 off the glass to the Golden Eagle's 26. Middle Tennessee forced 21 turnovers while only allowing 19, and the Blue Raiders recorded 12 assists and 11 steals to the Golden Eagle's 19 assists and nine steals.
"I thought we played really well," Golden Eagle Kandace "Tip" Newry said. "Compared to playing them last year and then taking them on this season, it was like night and day. I thought we had this and it was our game. I still believe sitting right here, right now, that that was our game. We have improved a lot since the beginning of the summer. We are going to continue to play the entire game strong and work on capitalizing at the end on defense there, and not allowing teams to get those late threes."
The Golden Eagles will hit the road next to take on Radford University in a 3 p.m. contest in Radford, Virginia.
You can follow the Golden Eagles online on the TTU Sports and Tennessee Tech Women's Basketball Facebook pages or on Twitter at @TTUGoldenEagles and @TTUWBB.
Photo by Jim Dillon
