By: Austin Caperton
MTN Sports Reporter
Middle Tennessee beat Marshall Thursday night in the Murphy Center 74-65 to extend their home winning streak to 15 straight.
MTSU won with their free throw shooting and defensive versatility, stifling Marshall’s leading scorer, Taveion Kinsey.
Eli Lawrence led the team in points and rebounds, recording 18 points and 9 rebounds, as well as being the primary defender against Kinsey. Marshall guard Andrew Taylor was the key to the offense for Marshall as he helped Marshall jump out to an early lead and finished with 24 points despite the loss.
Freshman F Teafale Lenard had a major highlight play when he went up against two Marshall defenders and slammed it home with one hand to bring the Blue Zoo to their feet. MTSU got to the free throw line 35 times Thursday and made 32 of their attempts, a fantastic percentage as a team and likely a huge reason behind the win.
This Saturday MTSU faces WKU in the Murphy Center on senior day, the final home game of the season for the Blue Raiders. Both teams come into the contest at the top of the Conference USA East division and riding seven game win streaks. It will surely be a packed house as this game has major implications and could be a preview of the C-USA tournament final.
MTSU will need to shoot better than 16% from behind the three point line if they’re going to beat WKU on Saturday but the Blue Raiders have a pattern of bouncing back after tough shooting nights, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens come game day.
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