The Lady Raiders got off to a slow start offensively Wednesday night against North Texas in the Murphy Center but were able to find a groove in the second half on the way to a 83-63 victory.

Kortni Jones gave Middle Tennessee a great performance off the bench, leading the team in scoring with a career high 24 points. Jones shot seven for ten from the field, including four for six from behind the three point arc. Jones exited the game with 51 seconds left to an ovation from the crowd.

“She was questionable tonight, she was sick and she was questionable and she had her best game of the year,” Raider coach Rick Insell said. “We couldn’t have won the ball game without Kortni Jones.”

“I’ve been working a lot on focusing on me scoring and coach has told me that if I see and opening to go ahead and take it, so I feel like he has a lot of confidence in me,” Jones said. “That’s really all you need as a player is for your coach to tell you to go ahead and do it.”

Jones wasn’t the only Raider putting in a career day Wednesday. Freshman Ebony Rowe grabbed a career-high 21 rebounds. Rowe added 15 points to make the game her fifth consecutive double-double and her eighth of the season.

Rowe’s 21 rebounds tied her for fourth most in school history for a single game and the most for any player under Insell.

Middle Tennessee didn’t score until the 17:50 mark in the first half, trailing North Texas until Anne Marie Lanning hit a three-pointer with 13:40 left in the half to tie the game at 10-10.

Lanning gave the Raiders their first lead on the following Raider possession when she was able to draw a shooting, making two shots at the line.

The Raiders largest lead of the half came just under the 10 minute mark, but the team was not able to hold the lead long as North Texas rallied back to grab a seven point lead with 2:15 reamaining.

Jones scored five Raider points in the final two minutes of the half, helping the Middle close the gap at half time, trailing North Texas 36-35.

North Texas outscored the Raiders 16-8 in the paint in the first half.

“We looked at half time, we had five missed 2-footers and had five missed free throws,” Insell said. “We couldn’t cry about that, we had to go back out and take care of it.”

In the second half Middle Tennessee found their presence down low, scoring 24 of their second half points in the paint area.

“When he talked to us at halftime he said guards you got to get it to them, but post you got to work for it,” Lanning said. “Coach (Alex) Fuller came in and told the post presence that it was absence in the first half and that we need to see it in the second half. I though they did a great job.”

Middle was able to get the line a number of times in the second half, drawing 21 fouls in the second half alone. North Texas’ Jasmine Godbolt and Kasondra Foreman, both starters, fouled out in the game.

“I like it when teams get to fouling us, it gets the foul count up high and we know it’s time to knock down free throws” Jones said. “I think a lot of teams are going to come out and pressure us…because we’re a younger team than most teams in the Sunbelt.”

Middle Jumped out to a quick seven point lead after halftime, but North Texas responded, retaking the lead with 14:06 remaining in the game. The Raiders then started to pull away.

“At that timeout with about eight minutes to go I think it was an eight-point game,” coach Insell said. “I knew they had to foul us and we said we got to rebound and we got to get free throws and through that span we did.”

Middle Tennessee outscored the Mean Green 29-14 in the final 10 minutes of the game on their way to victory, knocking down 15 free throws in that stretch.

“It may look like a 20-point game, but that was a really good team we played,” Jones said. “We just wanted it a little bit more than them I think.”

“The one thing I’m proud of our kids about is they showed a lot of heart,” Insell said. “We’ve been down all year several times, we just keep clicking and going back in there and doing what we can do best and that’s showing a lot of grit and a lot of desire.”