Middle Tennessee men’s basketball (3-1) suffered its first loss of the season on the road to the No. 7 Michigan Wolverines (4-0), 86-61. While the Blue Raiders hung with the Wolverines in the first half, trailing 36-30 at the break, Michigan outclassed MTSU in the second half. Middle Tennessee head coach Nick McDevitt said most of the Blue Raiders’ struggles were due to Michigan’s height and length throughout its starting five. “They’re obviously a top 10, top five team, so you got your hands full from the get-go,” McDevitt said in a postgame interview with WGNS Radio. “Their size, there’s sometimes where you guarded things the way you teach it, but it’s a 6’10” three man throwing it to a 7’3” center.” That 6’10” three man and 7’3” center combo is Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg and center Aday Mara. Lendeborg sits at 6’9” and notched 26 double-doubles for the University of Alabama-Birmingham last season prior to transferring to Michigan, while Mara holds a near 10-foot standing reach to impose his will around the rim on both sides. Lendeborg scored 25 points on nine-of-12 shooting from the floor, while scooping up 12 rebounds for the Wolverines. Mara added 10 points and 10 rebounds of his own. Sophomore guard Jahvin Carter led the way for the Blue Raiders, dropping 18 points, including 13 in the second half. Carter excelled from the free-throw line, knocking down seven shots in eight trips to the charity stripe. “On the road [against] a high-level team, you get down that early and you can start playing frustrated basketball,” McDevitt said. “It spirals quickly. I did think there were some times, or some moments really in the second half where we let the foul discrepancy, their physicality frustrate us a little bit.” Fouls hurt Middle Tennessee’s chances in the second half with redshirt sophomore forward Torey Alston fouling out??? with over 10 minutes remaining. McDevitt said the Blue Raiders foul issues also led to more Michigan offense. “There at the end of the first half, I don’t know if they made a basket in the last four or five minutes,” McDevitt said. “They were all at the free throw line. You’ve got to be able to make sure that you’re able to play physical without fouling.” The Blue Raiders led 9-7 with 16: 25 to play in the first half, but a 13-0 Michigan run put the group in a deep hole. Middle Tennessee fought back to bring it within one, making it a 25-24 game with 3: 50 to play in the frame off a right-handed baby hook by Kamari Lands. Michigan came out of halftime with higher efficiency from the floor than in the first half. The AP poll’s seventh-ranked team shot 38. 7% from the field, while shutting down some of the opportunities that the Blue Raiders found as open looks in the first half. Despite earning their first loss of the season, the Blue Raiders earned more than enough to make their trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan worthwhile. The Wolverines paid Middle Tennessee $90,000 for the contest, and the Blue Raiders will earn that same amount for a game against No. 2 Houston (4-0) on Dec. 20 in Houston, Texas. The Blue Raiders will stay on the road as they head to the Caribbean for the Cayman Islands Classic in George Town, Grand Cayman. MTSU will face off with Murray State (4-1), George Washington University (5-0) and McNeese State (3-1) between Nov. 23-25. To contact the sports editor, email [email protected].
https://mtsusidelines.com/2025/11/19/mtsu-mens-basketball-falls-on-the-road-to-no-7-michigan/
MTSU men’s basketball falls on the road to No. 7 Michigan
