MURFREESBORO, Tenn. –Middle Tennessee (20-10, 11-6 CUSA) had a career-best performance out of big man Essam Mostafa, who finished with 30 points and 20 rebounds, but unfortunately fell just short against the Liberty Flames (24-6, 12-5 CUSA) 86-81.

Liberty's hot shooting got them out to an early lead through the first 10 minutes until Middle Tennessee went on a 9-2 run that gave the Blue Raiders their first lead of the night at 25-22 with 7:23 left in the half. The Flames were led by Zach Cleveland, who started the evening scoring eight points on 3-of-4 from the field with three assists and two rebounds. The Blue Raiders were paced by forwards Kamari Lands, who had eight points including two three-pointers, and Mostafa, who had six points and four rebounds.

Liberty finished the first half shooting 63 percent from the field to take a 42-37 lead into the locker room. Taelon Peter was the Flames' leading scorer at 14 points, shooting 6-of-7. Cleveland finished the first half with 12 points. Middle Tennessee kept it close by having a respectable first half, themselves, shooting 45 percent from the field. Lands and Mostafa were both in double figures, with 13 and 10 points, respectively. Justin Bufford contributed five points and grabbed one offensive rebound.

Both teams continued to trade blows early in the second half, with Middle Tennessee cutting into the Liberty lead to make it 55-53 with 12:31 to play. The Blue Raiders leaned heavily on the play of Mostafa, who had already achieved his 13^th double-double of the season with 18 points and 11 rebounds on 8-of-13 shooting. Middle Tennessee held a narrow 24-21 advantage on the glass, with Camryn Weston grabbing five rebounds off the bench. Liberty cooled off a bit, offensively, but still retained the lead thanks to taking better care of the basketball, with just one second half turnover to that point.

Liberty kept Middle Tennessee without a field goal for nearly two-and-a-half minutes to jump out to an eight-point lead with 3:28 to play, a lead the Flames wouldn't relinquish. Peter finished as the game's leading scorer with 33 points while shooting 78.5 percent from the field. Cleveland was much quieter in the second half, finishing the night with 16 points and five rebounds and forward Owen Aquino scored 12 with seven boards.

Jestin Porter nailed a step-back three-pointer with 1:49 to play to narrow the lead to 80-76 going into the timeout, and Mostafa hit his season-high second three-pointer of the night to make it 82-79 with 18 seconds to go. Mostafa's 30-point, 20-rebound night was the first time in program history anyone's achieved that feat. In 1976, Tim Sisneros had 28 points and 20 rebounds against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels.

Outside Mostafa's career night, Lands scored 15 points, Porter had nine points with two rebounds and two assists. Cam Weston had 11 points and six rebounds off the bench.

By the Numbers:
30, 20: Career high in points and rebounds for Essam Mostafa.
13: Double double's this year for Mostafa.
+9: In the rebounding margin tonight for the Blue Raiders.

McDevitt's Mic:
"When you're playing another really good team, there's just such a small margin for error," said Middle Tennessee Head Coach Nick McDevitt. "At the end, we had a possession down four or five points that the ball kind of went through Jlynn (Counter's) hands into the backcourt and they got a dunk out of it. Instead of a six-point game down to four or three, it goes to eight and you're fighting upstream. They came into the game as the worst free-throw shooting team in the league and went 18-for-20. Peter had a heck of a night. They had a guy go for 30, we had a guy go for 30. You give up 86, and you just have a hard time winning."

Up next: Middle Tennessee will celebrate senior day this Saturday against FIU. Tipoff is set for 2:00 p.m. and the game will be streamed on ESPN+ and can be heard on the Blue Raider Network.