Who’s Playing
Jax. State Gamecocks @ Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders
Current Records: Jax. State 9-6, Middle Tennessee 11-5
How To Watch
What to Know
We’ve got another exciting Conference USA matchup on schedule as the Jax. State Gamecocks and the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders are set to tip at 6:00 p.m. ET on Saturday at Murphy Center. The Gamecocks are strutting in with some offensive muscle as they’ve averaged 80.3 points per game this season.
Jax. State will bounce into Saturday’s matchup after (finally) beating Western Kentucky, who they had gone 0-3 against in their three prior meetings. Jax. State came out on top against Western Kentucky by a score of 73-67 on Thursday.
Jax. State relied on the efforts of Mason Nicholson, who dropped a double-double on 20 points and 12 rebounds, and Quel’Ron House, who almost dropped a double-double on 14 points and nine rebounds. House had some trouble finding his footing against Kennesaw State on Saturday, so this was a nice turnaround.
Meanwhile, there’s no place like home for Middle Tennessee, who bounced back after a tough loss on the road on Saturday. They walked away with an 84-79 victory over Kennesaw State on Thursday.
Middle Tennessee can attribute much of their success to Jestin Porter, who went 9 for 15 en route to 27 points plus two blocks, and Essam Mostafa, who almost dropped a double-double on 22 points and nine rebounds. Mostafa continues to roll, besting his previous point total in each of the last three games he’s played.
Middle Tennessee was working as a unit and finished the game with 19 assists. That’s the most assists they’ve posted since back in February of 2024.
Jax. State is on a roll lately: they’ve won three of their last four matches, which provided a nice bump to their 9-6 record this season. As for Middle Tennessee, their win was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 11-5.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as the two teams are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Jax. State hasn’t had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 80.3 points per game. However, it’s not like Middle Tennessee struggles in that department as they’ve been averaging 78.4. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Jax. State was able to grind out a solid victory over Middle Tennessee in their previous matchup back in February of 2024, winning 76-68. The rematch might be a little tougher for Jax. State since the team won’t have the home-court advantage this time around. We’ll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Series History
Middle Tennessee and Jax. State both have 1 win in their last 2 games.
- Feb 21, 2024 – Jax. State 76 vs. Middle Tennessee 68
- Jan 24, 2024 – Middle Tennessee 75 vs. Jax. State 67
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