Dayvion McKnight leads WKU over ‘100 Miles of Hate’ rival Middle Tennessee 93-89

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - The WKU Men’s Basketball (14-11, 6-8 C-USA) team won its third straight game after defeating its ‘100 Miles of Hate Rival’ Middle Tennessee 93-89, led by Dayvion McKnight’s 33 points.

Along with 33 points, McKnight had 5 rebounds and five assists and shot 13-13 from the free throw line. Dontaie Allen had 12 points and shot 3-5 from behind the arc. And big man Jamarion Sharp had 11 points, five rebounds and five blocks.

WKU has struggled against MTSU lately, losing the last three matchups, but tonight they came out the gates strong doubling MTSU eight minutes into the game leading 22-11. In those eight minutes WKU was 9 of 12 from the field and 3 of 5 from three.

MTSU (15-10, 8-6 C-USA) would battle back making it 37 to 33 before the media timeout was called. But for the rest of the first half...The tops had control and took a double digit 49-39 lead into the locker room.

WKU started the second half strong as well, eventually going up by 16. But then the offense became stagnant and the blue raiders were able to score easy buckets off of turnovers. Slowly but surely the away team was able to climb back into the game and took its first lead of the game with 3:30 left on the clock.

That lead was short lived for 19 seconds as the tops became aggressive again on offense and were able to get to the free throw line to make 11 out of 12 free throws in the last four minutes of the game.

WKU remains undefeated in February and are 3-0 with Dontaie Allen in the starting lineup winning this one 93 to 89.

The big difference in this game was the Hilltoppers ability to make their free throws. WKU shot 27-29 from the free throw line while the Blue Raiders shot 9-14.

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