Murfreesboro, TN- The Blue Raiders rolled over North Alabama on Thursday night in front of a crowd of 1,681. Leading the charge for the Blue Raiders was freshman Anne Marie Lanning who scored 18 points in her first collegiate action. She was joined by three other Blue Raiders who scored double digits; Amber Holt (12), Emily Queen (11), and Chelsia Lymon (10).
The Blue Raiders came out in their patented full court press and forced North Alabama into 35 turnovers. This led to an early 22-4 lead and the Blue Raiders never looked back. According to Middle Tennessee coach Rick Insell, "We just need to get our team to buy into our style of play. We are going to play 94' feet of basketball every night".
Insell was also very pleased with the effort he saw out of his team. "I liked what I saw." added Insell. "We are a very young team. We played a lot of players to see how they react to different situations. This is the reason why we play these exhibition games. We will go back and correct our mistakes, but overall I am very pleased."
The Blue Raiders played everyone on the roster, with the exception of Starr Orr who is serving a four game suspension for an unspecified violation of team rules. The Blue Raiders also saw everyone one the team score with the exception of point guard Johnna Abney. The newcomers for the Raiders made an immediate impact as they combined for 43 of Middle Tennessee's total points.
Amber Holt scored a double-double pulling down 14 rebounds to go with her 14 points.
The Lady Raiders will be in action again on Monday night in their last exhibition game. They will face Henderson St. at 7 p.m. in Murphy Center.
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