HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — Kermit Davis stepped onto the court and called a timeout late in the second half with Middle Tennessee holding a big lead against Florida International in the quarterfinals of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
The Blue Raiders’ coach knew exactly who he wanted to put in the game.
Davis sent Middle Tennessee walk-on K.C. Anuna in for the final 3:11 of Middle Tennessee’s 73-38 win Sunday night. It was Anuna whose girlfriend, Tina Stewart, was stabbed to death Wednesday.
Stewart, 21, of Memphis, was a member of the Middle Tennessee women’s team, and her 18-year-old roommate, Shanterrica Madden, has been charged with first-degree murder.
Following Stewart’s death, Anuna missed the Blue Raiders’ practice on Friday before returning in time to make the trip to the conference tournament. The junior had only played in five games before Sunday, but he entered the game against the Panthers to cheers of “K.C., K.C., K.C.” from the vocal Middle Tennessee crowd behind the Blue Raiders’ bench.
Included in that crowd were the members of the women’s team, who stayed at the tournament to cheer on the men following their loss to Arkansas State earlier in the day.
“K.C.’s a great practice player,” Davis said. “He wears our guys out in practice a lot of times. He makes shots over them, and he really leads our scout team.
“So, it was just a good feeling to know we were up. That was a good feeling, great for him and great for our fans to see that.”
Middle Tennessee (16-15) led 24-17 at halftime before breaking the game open with a 21-2 run to start the second half. The No. 2 seed Blue Raiders advance to face fifth-seeded Arkansas-Little Rock in the tournament semifinals on Monday.
While the Middle Tennessee women took the court for their game wearing black T-shirts with “20tegether” on the front and “Stewart” on the back of each, the men came out in their traditional pregame warmups. Davis said the decision was representative of his desire to keep the routine as normal as possible for the Blue Raiders.
“I thought we started that the very first practice (following Stewart’s death),” Davis said. “I coached them real hard, and I just think that’s what we had to do. We had to get back on the floor and have as much normalcy as we could on the floor.
“I think anybody who goes through these types of things If you’re an athlete, to get back on the playing field or court, that’s your best time.”
Anuna took the court for warmups with the rest of his teammates, wearing a black patch near his left shoulder with Stewart’s No. 20 in white lettering.
During the pregame introductions, he stood in his traditional spot at the end of the Middle Tennessee line and performed his usual array of chest bumps with teammates and choreographed hand slaps.
As was in the case in the women’s game, a moment of silence was held before the game in Stewart’s memory. Following the silence, Anuna made the sign of a cross on his chest, kissed his hand and looked up. Davis sent Anuna to the scorer’s table to check in with 3:42 remaining, but with the action carrying on uninterrupted, he finally called a timeout with 3:11 left to get Anuna in the game.
The chants of Anuna’s first name flooded the Hot Springs Convention Center, with the Middle Tennessee women’s team standing and leading the way.
“After sitting on the bench and seeing how many we were up, we saw K.C. go in and it was a great feeling,” Middle Tennessee senior James Washington said. “Being the tragedy that happened and stuff Our prayers go out to Tina’s family and it was great.”
The emotion of the moment and game weren’t lost on Florida International coach Isiah Thomas, whose Panthers fell to 11-19.
“Even though we lost the game, I’m happy for those kids the way they played tonight, because they’ve gone through a lot,” Thomas said. “I’m happy they were able to pull it together.”