How Rick Insell's non-move helped MTSU women's basketball advance to CUSA championship

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — Middle Tennessee State women's basketball coach Rick Insell had seemingly a tough choice to make with more than six minutes left in Friday's Conference USA semifinals against Louisiana Tech at Propst Arena.

Holding on to just a five-point lead and two of his top players having picked up their fourth fouls within seconds of each other, the decision actually wasn't a tough one for Insell.

"I just wasn't going to sit them down," he said of junior center Anastasiia Boldyreva and junior guard Jalynn Gregory. "I trust them. They knew they had four fouls. We knew what we needed to run. We just had to be more careful setting picks and watching where we're going when we cut to the rim."

Insell's non-move paid off. Neither player fouled out and MTSU (28-4) held the momentum and held on for a 62-56 win to advance to Saturday's tournament championship game (4:30 p.m. CT, CBS Sports Network) against Liberty, an 82-70 winner over New Mexico State.

Louisiana Tech led as late as 2:31 left in the third quarter before MTSU went on a 10-0 run and never trailed again. Staying away from fifth fouls was key down the stretch.

"In a game like this you always want to understand time and score," said MTSU senior guard and conference player of the year Savannah Wheeler, who scored 15 of her game-high 22 points in the first half to keep the team in the game when others struggled to score. "You want to be smart and careful what you're doing."

MTSU women's basketball leaving nothing to chance in postseason

The win keeps alive MTSU's hopes of earning a second consecutive automatic bid to the women's NCAA tournament. In a league that has predominantly been a one-bid league, that's important.

But Insell believes his team already has built a strong enough résumé to be an at-large team, should MTSU not win the CUSA tournament.

"I don't think there's any doubt about it," he said. "We were probably in the (NCAA) tournament before it (CUSA tournament) started. You look at our out-of-conference schedule. We had Princeton down by 16 but just couldn't finish. We should have beaten Michigan. Belmont just beat us, they flat took us to the woodshed. We should be sitting here 30-2 or 31-1.

"I told the girls tonight that we've been under the gun since day one. We were a unanimous pick to win the conference. Everybody gave us their best shot for 18 games in a row. Tonight was no different. We knew what we had to do."

MTSU's NET ranking was 38 entering the conference tournament.

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More milestones for MTSU women's basketball players

During the game, Wheeler became the 35th women's player to score 1,000 points with the program, accomplishing the feat in two seasons. She also scored 1,000 points at Marshall before transferring to MTSU.

"I didn't even know until the coaches came in and told me in the locker room," Wheeler said. "I'm just thankful we pulled this one out."

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Boldyreva, who finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds, also surpassed 1,000 points for her career. She also had four blocks, giving her 192 and moving her ahead of Cheyenne Parker (191) for first on the all-time MTSU list.

"And she's still got another year, thank goodness," Insell said.