HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Middle Tennessee women's basketball's (26-8) Conference USA Championship run ended in the final game against Liberty (26-6) on Saturday, 53-48.

Courtney Blakely drained a corner three to open a fast-paced first quarter. Five minutes into the game, the Blue Raiders led 9-8 and Anastasiia Boldyreva had four rebounds. When the first 10 minutes ended, it was the Lady Flames who held the lead, 20-16.

The second quarter was much slower, as the first basket came by Ta'Mia Scott with 5:55 on the clock after Blakely tallied her second steal of the game. Scott then knocked in a wide open three from the left wing to put MTSU back on top 21-20 at the second quarter media timeout.

A physical remainder of the quarter passed, and the Flames led 30-25 as the teams headed to the locker room. Defense was tight for both teams in the first half, as MTSU shot 28% and Liberty shot 33% in the first 20 minutes.

The Flames took their largest lead of the game with 2:59 left in the third quarter, up by 11. Boldyreva laid it up, then Scott scored three the old fashioned way, and Blakely picked the pocket of a Liberty guard and returned it for a layup on the other end to cut the deficit to four as time expired on the third quarter.

Scott took control of the Blue Raider offense, scoring eight in the third and MTSU's first four fourth quarter points, and the deficit was five with 4:51 to play.

A Boldyreva turnaround jumper cut it to three. After a Liberty three, Gregory answered with one of her own, and MTSU trailed by three points with 45.9 seconds left on the clock. The Flames held on to complete the win.

Scott finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds, and Boldyreva followed with 12 points and eight rebounds. Blakely added seven and Gregory posted six on a pair of 3-pointers.

Head Coach Rick Insell:
"We didn't finish. We had chances, we ran our offense, we thought we'd have more problems getting into our offense. We didn't, we just didn't put the ball in the hole like we should have. We had 10 turnovers, and some of those were costly, but we got out-rebounded 42-to-30. It's hard to win basketball games when you get out-rebounded that much. We didn't miss but four rebounds, but they were costly. I thought a couple of their players stepped up and made some shots. We had chances to win it. We wish Liberty all the luck in the world, and great game."