Middle Tennessee women\u2019s basketball (2-1) lost to the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles (3-0) 63-54 in an in-state rivalry game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Lady Raiders\u2019 offense looked impressive in the first quarter, but fizzled out as the game went on, as turnovers caught up to them, and the Golden Eagles took advantage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MTSU started strong in the first quarter as freshman Macie Phifer led the team with nine points going three-for-four from beyond the arc to take a 21-13 lead. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a great player, and she\u2019s got to figure out this Division I game,\u201d MTSU head coach Rick Insell said. \u201cShe\u2019s still going to play good games like tonight, because she\u2019s such a great athlete, but once she figures this thing out, it\u2019s going to propel her into a super basketball player.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Freshman point guard Yu Han Lin was also a big contributor to the offense in the first quarter, adding eight more points, but as the game went on, turnovers began to stack up for Lin as she finished the game with eight total turnovers with the Lady Raiders total at 19.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYu Han does a great job of scoring, but you can\u2019t have eight turnovers,\u201d Insell said. \u201cYou got to get into the offense, and then we got to push the ball down the floor.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Blue Raider offense began to slow in the second quarter as they only put up 10 points, but Blair Baugus stayed consistent as she stacked 12 rebounds on the night. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBlair ended up with 12 rebounds, but still, we\u2019ve got to do a better job,\u201d Insell said. \u201cWe missed some rebounds early in the first half, and I just wasn\u2019t really happy with the way we played.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
As the Middle Tennessee offense slowed throughout the night, the Golden Eagles offense began to heat up as the Blue Raiders defense gave up 22 points in the third quarter. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe never did look good running any of our offenses, we never did look settled down,.\u201d Insell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Freshman forward LaReesha Cawthorn and sophomore guard Chloe Larry led the Golden Eagles offense, going seven-for-eight from the field, scoring a combined 17 points to take the lead 48-42 going into the fourth quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cChloe Larry\u2026did a good job, we were trailing her and then she hit three threes\u2026that was big,\u201d Insell said. <\/p>\n
Tennessee Tech put up another 15 points in the fourth quarter to secure the win.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey played hard, they played harder than us, they executed their stuff and they did a good job,\u201d Insell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Blue Raiders will travel to Houston, Texas, to face off against the Rice Owls (1-1) on Saturday, Nov. 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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