BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – "Go ahead and break out those brooms," said redshirt freshman Torey Alston at the final buzzer Saturday night, putting an exclamation point on an astounding night for the Middle Tennessee men's basketball team. Traveling north to play Western Kentucky is no easy task, but the Blue Raiders ensured that head coach Nick McDevitt would earn his 100th win at Middle Tennessee in the home of their rivals, defeating the Hilltoppers 87-77.

Jlynn Counter started off hot for the Blue Raiders, knocking down the team's first 10 points in the opening five minutes, including two threes. Both teams exchanged blows throughout the first half of the opening frame, with neither squad pulling more than five points in front. Though the Hilltoppers cleaned up on the offensive glass better than MTSU, scoring 13 second-chance points in the first half, the Blue Raiders refused to go away.

Exchanging buckets, just one point separated the teams at the under-4 media timeout, with WKU leading 36-35. Middle Tennessee kicked it into gear coming out of that break and didn't look back. A couple of offensive boards on a cluster of missed baskets gave Camryn Weston a wide-open look at the hoop for his first triple of the evening, before he pickpocketed a Hilltopper for a floater just seconds later, sending Middle Tennessee into the locker room with a 44-39 lead.

Closing out the first half, Counter led all scorers with 18 points and Essam Mostafa, who had hit a trio of layups late in the half, earned 10 points with eight rebounds. Perhaps the most perplexing stat of the half, Jestin Porter wrapped up the first 20 minutes with just two points and seven rebounds.

MTSU kept its foot on the gas coming out of the locker room, going on a 7-1 run to force the home team to use a timeout just 1:30 into the second frame after Porter crossed up a Hilltopper defender for a clutch three. That timeout seemed to refresh Western Kentucky, who proceeded to cut the Middle Tennessee lead to just two points at the under-12 media. A couple of poor shot selections on offense did not aid in cutting WKU's run, with the crowd getting louder by the second.

Despite the sudden charge back from the home team, the Blue Raiders never gave up their lead, matching each WKU bucket made. Bringing the score up to 69-68 right after the under-8 media was the last run the Hilltoppers made. The Blue Raiders stifled any heat WKU still had, pulling down boards on both ends of the court and making the shots needed. Alston slammed down two highlight reel-worthy dunks to put him into double-digits. The first coming from a pass from Weston, who was being covered by two defenders in the paint, and the second an alleyoop from Mostafa after a tough press that was broken by Weston.

As fans dressed in red began to filter out of Diddle Arena while the clock wound down, McDevitt's team kept pushing to ensure he got the centennial victory, stretching the lead to 10 points as the final buzzer sounded. The win made McDevitt just the second coach in program history to secure numerous series sweeps over the team's rival and moved the -program to 17-8 overall and 8-4 in league play.

By the Numbers
3: For the first time since January 16, 2020, three Blue Raiders scored 20+ points on the evening.
100: The win at Western marked McDevitt's 100th win as the Blue Raider head coach, just one of four coaches in program history to achieve this.
10: The 10-point margin of victory marked the largest at Bowling Green since 2017 for Middle Tennessee.
87: The most points scored by Middle Tennessee in conference play this season.