MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Western Kentucky’s men’s basketball team potentially lost much more than just a game Saturday against Middle Tennessee.

The Hilltoppers were in the midst of a typical tight matchup against their Conference USA rivals at the Murphy Center when standout freshman guard Julius Thedford landed awkwardly while driving to the basket in the second half of Saturday’s 71-57 loss.

Thedford put no weight on his injured right knee as he was helped off the court by teammates, the latest in a lengthy list of injuries the Hilltoppers have sustained this season.

“Kind of a collision at the rim — tough injury for Julius,” WKU coach Hank Plona said. “It’s something to do with his knee, so he’ll get that looked at in the next day or two and we’ll figure out where it’s at. We’ll keep moving forward. We’ve got a difficult road trip coming up.”

When Thedford went down with 14:39 left in the game, the Tops trailed by just three points at 39-36. Blaise Keita’s split a pair of free throws to cut that deficit to two, but WKU (11-7 overall, 2-3 CUSA) steadily lost ground from there.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by MTSU’s Tre Green pushed the lead to 10- at 51-41, and the Blue Raiders kept pouring it on. Jestin Porter’s jump shot stretched the lead to a game-high 19 points with 5:31 to play as the Tops struggled stay locked in following Thedford’s injury.

“I could tell everybody was kind of thinking about it still,” WKU graduate guard Khristian Lander said. “We’ve got to live and we learn. We’ll see them again, so we’ll be all right.”

Plona said Thedford’s injury probably did impact his teammates.

“It’s tough when you see a guy that’s worked as hard as he has get injured, and obviously it appeared to be a pretty serious injury,” Plona said. “So those things aren’t easy. We have good dudes that care and have had a lot of success. Julius has been a huge part of that. So I think that’s natural. It seems like this is going to be one of those years with a lot of ups and downs. It’s going to a challenge and a battle.”

Depending on the severity of Thedford’s injury, the already short-handed Tops may be looking at one less productive player in the rotation for an indefinite time frame. The 6-foot-4 Memphis native is third in scoring (12.4 points per game) for the team this season.

The Hilltoppers are still waiting for the return of senior forward Babacar Faye, who found out this week he won’t require surgery on his own injured knee. Faye, the Tops’ second-leading scorer and top rebounder, hasn’t played since Dec. 14. WKU is already without injured guards Teagan Moore, Terrion Murdix and Kade Unseld, plus forward Fallou Diagne — none have played this season and are all medical redshirts.

MTSU (13-5, 4-1 CUSA) scuffled against the Tops in the first half. Thedford scored five straight points to give his team its biggest lead of the night at 9-4 with 12:50 left in the first half. WKU held onto that lead for most of the first half and led 28-27 at the break.

But after holding the Blue Raiders to a 35.7% shooting performance in the first half, the Tops allowed MTSU to shoot 59.3% over the final 20 minutes.

Porter led four Blue Raiders in double-figure scoring with 15 points. Essam Mostafa posted a double-double with 11 points and a game-high 18 rebounds, helping his team outrebound the Tops 42-32.

Senior guard Don McHenry, held scoreless in the first half, led the Tops with 16 points. Thedford added 10 points and Lander had nine, while redshirt senior forward Blaise Keita pulled down a season-high seven rebounds.  WKU finished 21-of-63 (33.3%) from the field, including just 20% (5-of-25) from 3-point range.

“Seemed like we struggled to score both halves,” Plona said. “When we attacked the paint we struggled to score. When we got a couple good looks from 3, we struggled to score. We were trying different guys, different options, trying to rotate guys to stay fresh. Bottom line, we think if we hold a team to 71 points we should be in a position to win.”

WKU has two more road games next week, starting at Louisiana Tech on Thursday followed by a trip two days later to Sam Houston State.