Balanced MTSU women cruise past North Texas 66-45

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) — and No. 24 Middle Tennessee cruised to a 72-45 win over North Texas on Thursday night.

Courtney Blakely, Kseniya Malashka and Anastasiia Boldyreva each scored 12 points for the Laidy Raiders 24-4, 17-2 Conference USA), who have won six straight. Savannah Wheeler added 10 points and Courtney Whitson had 11 rebounds and five steals to go with seven points to help MTSU to a 40-27 rebounding advantage.

Quincy Noble scored 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds for the Mean Green (11-18, 8-11), which went 2 of 14 from 3-point range and shot 37% overall.

It was the 11th time this season Middle Tennessee held an opponent below 50 points.

The Lady Raiders hit four 3-pointers and North Texas was 3-of-18 shooting in the first quarter as MTSU took a 20-6 lead. A 12-2 run in the second quarter helped stretch the lead to 37-19 at the half.

Middle Tennessee shot 57% in the first half and outrebounded the Mean Green 22-10. North Texas never got closer than 15 in the second half.

Middle Tennessee closes out the regular season at home on Saturday against UTEP.

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AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25