Gallman scores 14, Yates 13 as Middle Tennessee starts quickly in 69-51 victory over Howard

Middle Tennessee coasts past Howard 69-51

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — James Gallman scored 14 points and Desmond Yates got seven of his 13 points in the opening 5:23 as Middle Tennessee started quickly and coasted to a 69-51 victory over Howard on Tuesday night.

The Blue Raiders (5-6) jumped out to a 17-3 lead en route to a 34-14 halftime bulge, as the Bison (1-10) posted their second-lowest point total in a half this season.

Turnovers hurt Howard. The Blue Raiders parlayed 20 turnovers into 29 points. Howard got 14 points off 11 Middle Tennessee turnovers.

Howard never got closer than 16 points in the second half, even though Middle Tennessee went scoreless for nearly 6 minutes at one stretch. All but one of the 12 Blue Raiders who got into the game scored as Middle Tennessee had 36 bench points to Howard’s 11.

Calvin Thompson scored 15 points to pace Howard, and Mike Phillips had 12.