Middle Tennessee led 36-29 at the half, and built a 23-point led with 7:28 left to play and looked to be on cruise control. Henderson State, however, had other plans as the Lady Reddies went on an 18-3 run in a five minute span to pull within eight 68-60.

Lady Raider freshman Starr Orr pushed the lead back to 10 with a layup at the 1:54 mark and sophomore Chrissy Givens picked up a steal to give the ball back to Middle Tennessee. Junior Tia Stovall added a layup off the Givens steal to build the lead to 12. Henderson State capped off the game with a three-point bucket by Julie Anderson with four seconds remaining in the game.

The Lady Raiders opened the game scoring eight points in the first two minutes of the game, before Henderson State's Aesha Carter scored on a lay-up with 17:32 to play. Middle Tennessee shot 50 percent from the field in the first half and finished the game shooting 42 percent from the field.

Stovall paced the Lady Raiders with 20 points, shooting 8-of-13 from the field and was 4-of-7 from the charity stripe. Senior Patrice Holmes added 16 points, Chrissy Givens had 13 points and Krystle Horton recorded 11.

Nine of the 10 Lady Raiders on the active roster saw action in the game. Freshmen Starr Orr and Lakira Boyd each recorded points in the game with four and six respectively.

Saprina Reed led Henderson State with 16 points. Aesha Carter and Satoya Spates each had 13.

Middle Tennessee plays their second exhibition game on Saturday when the Lady Raiders host Georgia College and State University. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. in the Murphy Center.

QUOTES:

Head Coach Stephany Smith: "There were moments that we did some really good things. When you have that many new players that are playing that amount of quality minutes, you are going to have some roller coaster moments throughout the basketball game. There were a lot of things that I was pleased with. I am glad that we have had an opportunity to get the first game jitters behind us. I definitely saw a lot of things that we need to continue to improve upon and get better at."

"I am going to go home and watch some film. I thought our defensive intensity was poor as far as consistency. It looked very good in spurts, but I didn't think we had enough pressure on the basketball. I thought people who are very key defenders for us didn't do as good of job as they are capable of doing. When you have a lot of new players on the court, your veteran players have to step up and show the way."

Guard Patrice Holmes: "I just looked for my shot within the offense. At the beginning of the half I was finding my teammates open and they were knocking down the shots. When we started getting down, I decided that I needed to take more shots and open things up for the rest of my teammates."

Forward Tia Stovall: "Today was a learning experience for the new players. Some of them kind of had the jitters and were a little shaky when they went out there. But, I think this game will help them understand that the pace is faster. As they grow and get better, I think we are going to have better outside shooters and better ball pressure. I think we will have better chemistry as a team."

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