By: MTN Sports Reporter
Charles Crump
The MTSU Men’s Basketball team, led by Head coach Nick McDevitt, faced off against the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats in their second outing of the season.
Coming out to start the first half the Blue Raiders got off to a slow start as they stayed only two possessions away from the Wildcats, and both teams seemed to trade bucket for bucket.
This would be the case until there were around eight minutes left in the first and BCU took their first lead of the game by way of a 3-pointer from the Wildcat’s Joe French.
BCU would hold onto this lead for only two possessions until a lay up from Sophomore Elias King started a 12-0 run for the Blue Raiders to bring it to half time.
This run can be chalked up to the Blue raiders finding a serious defensive rhythm as they began pressing in a full court defense. The full court defensive press allowed for a total of six steals and 12 points off turnovers for the Blue Raiders in the first half.
When asked about his team’s defensive effort Coach McDevitt gave high praise, and stressed that this was the style of defense that the team will try to play going forward.
“Every guy that went in contributed in some form or fashion,” said McDevitt, “That's important as we move forward.”
At the half the Blue Raiders enjoyed a 35-23 lead due to a monster defensive effort that all but put the game away early.
Going back to the second half the story was very much the same as MTSU continued to play their full court game, and BCU largely struggled to get the ball down the floor.
The Blue Raiders continued to build their lead to 39-55 by the midway point of the second half when Forward Deandre Dishman found his teammate Teafale Lenard with a pass that led him to the only dunk of the game. After the game Dishman explained how plays like this are always good for a team.
“It was a big energy play,” said Dishman, “he’s one of my bigger guys on the court, and he's real explosive.”
With lock down defense all night and a deep bench that kept the momentum going, The Men’s Blue Raider team had no trouble starting this season off 2-0 for the fourth time in the past five years.