Moore stars in return as Tops edge MTSU 82-80
Published 1:00 am Sunday, February 15, 2026
Western Kentucky’s Teegan Moore delivered a love letter of a performance in his return to action at E.A. Diddle Arena on Saturday night.
Moore, the Hilltoppers’ leading scorer who had missed the previous five games while recovering from a concussion, scored a game-high 28 points to lead WKU to an 82-80 win against longtime rival Middle Tennessee in a Valentine’s Day matchup.
The victory completed the Tops’ first regular-season sweep of MTSU since the 2020-21 campaign and Moore played an outsized role in the result by tying his career high with the 28-point outing. Listed as questionable before the game, the 6-foot-5 native of Dry Ridge said the only limitation on his playing time was “as much as my lung capacity would allow me to” play.
“I feel good — I’m tired, but I feel good. I’m glad we got the win in a big game for us,” said Moore, who logged nearly 26 minutes in his first game action since a Jan. 21 home loss to Liberty.
WKU (14-11 overall, 7-7 Conference USA) needed every minute Moore could give, even while getting another standout performance from senior forward Grant Newell, who provided a 20-point outing on 7-of-11 shooting, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range while adding seven rebounds in 30 minutes. It was the first time the Tops have had two 20-point scorers in a game this season.
After a solid first half sparked by hot shooting from Moore and Newell — they combined to hit 7-of-9 from 3-point range and were 10-of-13 overall from the field — the Tops had a 42-37 halftime lead.
WKU opened the second half on a 13-4 run to build a 55-41 lead with 16:04 to play. Moore’s made free throw capped the surge that put the Tops up by 14 points.
Middle Tennessee (12-13, 6-8 CUSA) charged back into the game with a 16-5 run of its own, holding WKU without a field goal for nearly four minutes. Moore and Blaise Keita combined for five free throws during that span, helping the Hilltoppers hold onto a 60-57 lead with 12:12 to play.
The Blue Raiders pushed ahead 69-66 with 6:47 to play on a Sean Smith jumper, their first lead of the half. The Tops then hit four straight free throws to regain the lead, lost it again as MTSU scored five straight to lead by four twice before again pulling even at the free-throw line — the Hilltoppers sank 14 free throws in the closing minutes, with Moore, LJ Hackman, Newell and Ryan Myers hitting from the line. Moore led the way with eight makes at the line down the stretch, including two with three seconds left to secure the 82-80 victory.
Before Moore’s final two free throws, Hackman swooped through the line for a huge tip-in when Moore missed a layup after coming up with a half-court steal. Hackman’s follow-up put the Tops up 80-79.
“I feel like I was just trailing down,” said Hackman, a junior guard who finished with 14 points. “I saw it come out and I just took it back in and just stayed in the moment.”
Smith sank a free throw to get MTSU back within a point, but Moore hit both his tries from the line to stretch the lead back to two and the Blue Raiders came up empty on Smith’s running jumper in the lane at the buzzer.
Newell credited a season-high crowd of 4,023 at Diddle with giving his team a lift on Saturday.
“I think it definitely boosted us, especially at the very end of the game,” Newell said. “I mean, I could barely hear myself think at that last free throw and they were trying to get two misses, but, definitely when an opposing team comes in here and has a run like that in the second half, it’s very important for the crowd to get into it and to give us a boost for the rest of the game, and I think they did a great job.”
Newell scored five of WKU’s first seven points as the Hilltoppers took a 7-6 lead into the first media time out to start the game.
Middle Tennessee put together an 8-3 run to go in front 14-10, but the Hilltoppers responded with a 12-2 surge to regain the lead. Hackman sparked the stretch with six points, hitting a 3-pointer and knocking down three free throws after being fouled on another 3-point attempt, before Newell and Moore buried back-to-back 3s to push the WKU advantage to 22-16 with 9:22 left in the half.
The Hilltoppers stretched the lead to nine at 27-18 after Leeroy Odiahi finished an alley-oop dunk on a pass from point guard Terrion Murdix and Moore converted an and-one at the rim. MTSU cut the deficit to 27-23, but WKU answered again as Newell scored five straight and Cam Haffner sank two free throws to make it 40-32 with just over two minutes remaining in the half. The Blue Raiders closed on a 5-2 run, trimming the margin to 42-37 at the break.
WKU shot 48.9% from the field and 87.5% at the line (28-of-32) to close out a three-game homestanding with a pair of wins.
“I thought we rebounded the ball better there in the last five to eight minutes and there was one second-chance bucket they got that had been a little bit of an issue all night,” WKU coach Hank Plona said. “So, it’s always good to dig down deep and figure out how to make plays to win. I think when a team starts building that connection, which I think we’ve really done the last three weeks, sometimes things go your way. So, I thought we got a couple stops there late in the game that were big.
“Obviously, 1-for-2 free throw to tie the game, went down there and without a timeout. Terrion, Teagan and Grant executed exactly what we wanted them to do. Obviously, we wanted to attack the rim, put pressure on the basket. Teagan was able to do that. We did a good job making free throws all night, and we survived that last possession. So, very happy to get the win. It’s obviously big for our team. We’ll try to keep getting better these next couple days and play at Delaware on Wednesday.”
The Hilltoppers will visit Newark, Delaware, on Wednesday for a 6 p.m. matchup against CUSA newcomer Delaware for the first of two straight road games.
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