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MTSU women rally to beat Charlotte to take No. 4 tourney seed




MTSU senior Charity Savage had 27 points and 13 rebounds in a key win at Charlotte on Saturday. MTSU ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

MTSU senior Charity Savage had 27 points and 13 rebounds in a key win at Charlotte on Saturday. MTSU ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A first-round bye was at stake and both teams played as though they were already in tournament mode when MTSU closed out the regular season at Charlotte Saturday.

By the time the dust had settled MTSU captured another captivating win, roaring back from eight down with 1:08 remaining to stun Charlotte 79-74.

“This is an amazing group of players, teammates,” Lady Raider coach Rick Insell said following his team’s fourth straight win. “There is no quit in this bunch. What a great, great comeback on the road against an outstanding basketball team. Charlotte is talented and very well-coached. They are also tough to beat in this building. This game meant a lot to both teams and they certainly played like it. Great win for our Lady Raiders.”

MTSU (21-9, 13-5) captured the No. 4 seed in the upcoming Conference USA Championship. The Lady Raiders will begin tournament action Thursday at 11:30 a.m.

It felt like the tournament had started Saturday afternoon.

The nip-and-tuck battle wasn’t decided until the final seconds of the fourth quarter as MTSU completed a seemingly improbable comeback trailing by nine with 3:29 remaining and eight with 1:08 remaining before the Lady Raiders staged a remarkable rally.

They capped the game on a 13-0 run in the final 61 seconds to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

“I don’t want to lose,” MTSU sophomore guard Anastasia Hayes said. “Our team doesn’t want to lose. I believe we just dug down and found a little something extra. We just refused to lose today.”

Charity Savage capped a remarkable regular season with one of her best performances of the season. The senior produced her 12th double-double of the season with a career-high 27 points and 13 rebounds. She also connected for a career-best 10 field goals in 15 attempts, while knocking down four pressure-packed charity tosses in the final 15 seconds.

Mainstay Anastasia Hayes turned in another eye-popping performance with her fourth straight 20-plus point game, finishing with 25 points and also inflicting all-around damage with six assists, five steals and four rebounds in another stellar effort.

Freshman standout Aislynn Hayes was solid once again with her 10th straight double-figure scoring game, finishing with 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting on her birthday. Fellow freshman Courtney Whitson was strong with eight points and five boards.

Anastasia Hayes scored seven of her 25 points in a 14-second span and nine straight overall in the final minute to ignite the uprising.

“Special players do special things and we have a lot of special players,” Insell said. “Anastasia Hayes’ performance in the final minute was legendary. We had a lot of players step up and make winning plays but her will to win got us going down the stretch.”

Trailing 74-66, Anastasia Hayes knifed through the heart of the Charlotte defense and converted a layup while drawing the foul. She converted the three-point play to cut the lead to 74-69 with 1:01 remaining.

Hayes then came up with a steal and started what turned out to be one of the biggest plays of the game with 46 seconds to play. She finished a layup and was fouled. However, the officials stopped to review the play.

They ruled the foul was flagrant, giving MTSU two free throws and possession.

Hayes knocked down both free throws for a four-point play to close the gap to 74-73.

MTSU missed two shots on its possession but Savage came up with an offensive rebound and the Lady Raiders called a timeout with 24 seconds remaining.

Why go away from a good thing?

Anastasia Hayes had the hot hand and continued her heroics on the inbound play with the go-ahead field goal, propelling MTSU into the lead, 75-74, with 19 seconds remaining. It was the ninth of nine points in a 41-second span for the sensational sophomore.

The drama was far from over.

MTSU was called for a foul with 15 seconds remaining to send Charlotte standout Jade Phillips to the line for a pair of free throws. Phillips missed both and Savage came away with rebound 339 of the season and was fouled.

Savage calmly sank both free throws to extend the lead to 77-74 and, after another Charlotte miss, collected another carom and was fouled. Once again, Savage sank both free throws to seal the win.

With 13 rebounds against Charlotte, Savage moved into fifth on the single-season list with 341 on the season.

MTSU trailed 41-30 at the half but outscored Charlotte 49-33 in the final two quarters to surge from behind and earn victory.

The Lady Raiders will play the winner of the No. 5 vs. No. 12 game in the first round of the tournament.

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