How MTSU men's basketball reached Conference USA semifinals with double overtime win
Middle Tennessee State men's basketball needed two overtimes to keep its NCAA Tournament hopes alive, but the Blue Raiders survived with a 77-75 win over Louisiana Tech at Huntsville's Von Braun Center.
The third-seeded Blue Raiders (22-10) play Jacksonville State at 2 p.m. Friday in the semifinals.
"I’m really proud of our team," MTSU coach Nick McDevitt said. "I thought it was a tough team win, you know, obviously double overtime late at night. Now that's two years in a row that we've played late in the first round and won on a miss at the buzzer, and both of them were hard fought."
"The execution of big moments was enough to win the game. You know there were times when that part of it wasn't the prettiest, really for either team, but you could see how both teams were really battling."
Essam Mostafa's putback with 16 seconds left after a blocked shot was the difference in the second overtime. Mostafa scored six of his 11 points in the second OT.
Jestin Porter scored 20 points to lead MTSU, 16 of those coming in the first half. Jlynn Counter added 16 and Torey Alston 11 for the Blue Raiders, who overcame just 5 of 30 shooting from 3-point range.
MTSU's Justin Bufford appeared to have hit a 3-pointer near the buzzer to win it in regulation, but after review, it was ruled that he did not get the shot off before the shot clock expired. The two teams ended the first overtime tied at 62.
Louisiana Tech swept MTSU in the regular season, winning 75-69 at home and 85-74 in Murfreesboro.
The Blue Raiders led 40-31 at halftime and built an 10-point second-half lead that was whittled down to one (54-53) by the Bulldogs before they went on a scoring drought that lasted more than three and a half minutes, allowing MTSU to go up by five.
However, the Bulldogs outscored the Raiders 9-4 down the stretch to force overtime.
Cecil Joyce covers high school sports and MTSU athletics for The Daily News Journal. Contact him at cjoyce@dnj.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @Cecil_Joyce.
This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: MTSU men's basketball advances to Conference USA semifinals
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