Hilltopper Notebook: Tops Split Out West, Lady Tops at Least 3rd, WKU Baseball and Softball with Strong Showings.
It's another one of those sweet spots in the year where a lot is going on. Men's and Women's Basketball, Baseball and Softball all are into the important portions of their schedules.
With a lot going on during this time of the year, we just want to make sure you know the major news on campus. WKU Basketball moved up in the standings but still stands in a precarious position after some shocking results in other games.
The Lady Toppers will absolutely finish no worse than third, but if they can somehow sweep the week, unless MTSU suffers its second loss of the conference season at Liberty, WKU would steal the two seed and have a little easier road and a ton of confidence heading into Huntsville.
WKU Baseball has been fairly dominant, although few games have been absolute blowouts. Nonetheless, the Tops sit at 11-1, an incredible start regardless of the details.
Other than two early surprises against middling mid-majors, WKU Softball has played a quality schedule and been incredibly respectable, standing at 13-6 overall. They head into conference play this Friday at Sam Houston.
WKU Basketball Moves Up a Spot, In the Running for an advantageous seeding in CUSA Tournament
Tops Build Huge Lead, Nearly Lose it in Second Half, Take Sixth Seed after Thursday
The Tops were able to stifle UTEP's second-half comeback on Thursday night. The 80-73 win was a pivotal CUSA victory for seeding for the conference tournament coming up in just a few short days. Even though the Tops led the first half with double-digit points, the lead was trimmed to 17 points by halftime.
The defense was a huge catalyst for most of the Tops’ second straight win, this time at altitude in El Paso. At the start of the first half, the Miners were only 7-ford-32 from the field, continuing their first-half woes that have plagued them all season. In the second half, the Miners outscored the Tops 50-40, with 25 of those points coming from free throws. WKU also had foul trouble with 18 whistles and baited into 10 turnovers. Through it all, the comeback wasn’t enough as WKU found some bench points to help the starters with some cushion to keep the game out of NMSU’s reach.
Tyrone Marshall, Jr., led all Hilltoppers with 16 points and helped out significantly on defense with nine rebounds. Don McHenry also backed the Tops with 15 points of his own. Khristian Lander also entered the game off the bench to tally a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds, four of them offensively. It was Lander’s first game of action after battling with a back injury for a short number of weeks.
NMSU Routs WKU, Tops With Worst Offensive Performance of the Year by a Wide Margin
There’s not a ton to say about this one. WKU got down big in Las Cruces…and it just didn’t improve. In the worst offensive performance of the season thus far by far, WKU gets drubbed 65-47. WKU definitely got out of system and didn’t play with the same energy they played at UTEP with.
There could be many theories, but ultimately, they just didn’t play well, and if they had a decent outing from the field and didn’t panic and make bizarre decisions, they could have found themselves in the game with anything above dismal.
Tyrone Marshall had a nice game against NMSU with 16 points, although he did take 13 three point attempts, so although he did produce something, taking 17 shots and only making five really didn’t move the needle for the Tops. Don McHenry also finished in double digits at ten points, and Jalen Jackson finished with eight points, his second best offensive effort of the season (10 pts at Marshall on 11/30). The only other player of any offensive note was Khristian Lander, who shot 2-of-12 but did find a way to scrape out eight points.
So Where Does WKU Basketball Stand Now in the Hunt for a Bye?
Well, if you asked me this right after the game, I was still feeling really good. However, late results came in that really made it an uphill battle for WKU. Now that La Tech, NMSU and Kennesaw State all won their games this weekend, the only team WKU solidified position on was UTEP.
With Kennesaw State’s shocking win at Liberty, the Owls are now unable to be passed by the Hilltoppers, and because of La Tech and NMSU playing each other, WKU can only pass one of them, and they can only accomplish that if they win two games and one of those two gets swept this weekend.
If WKU wins two and La Tech or NMSU lose two, WKU will scrape into the six seed. Otherwise, they are likely to be the seven, but could fall as low as eighth place by week’s end.
Enoch Kalambay Missed the Trip
A quick, worthy note, WKU’s solid power forward Enoch Kalambay has sat out most of the last two weeks due to some nagging injuries and a mental health break. He did not travel with the team this past week. WKU Head Coach Hank Plona has consistently said Enoch is a part of the program and should be joining the team next week. The Tops really could have used him to bang around with the NMSU big men, but it was not to be.
Lady Toppers Play Excellent Basketball Heading Down the Stretch
WKU Dominates UTEP from the tip and Wins 81-58.
Josie Gilvin #33 scored 13 of her game high 21 points in the first quarter and added 11 rebounds to achieve her fourth straight game with a double-double. Alexis Mead #3 scored 15 points and 11 rebounds and earned her first double-double of her illustrious career. Destiny Salary #1 scored 17, Acacia Hayes #10 scored 12 points and Zsofia Telegdy #23 scored 8 points in the victory. This was a total team effort. Eleven Lady Toppers played in this game and all contributed both offensively and defensively.
WKU shot 50% from the field, scored 40 points in the paint, snatched 12 steals, assisted 18 times and outrebounded UTEP 39-26. This was as dominant as a game as Western has had in a while. If this continues, CUSA better look out.
After Dominating 30 Minutes of the Game, WKU holds on to Beat NM State 85-68.
At the end of the third period, WKU led 69-37 and extended the lead to 36 points a few minutes into the fourth quarter. The UTEP game was incredible, but the first three quarters plus of this game were amazing to behold. The Lady Toppers totally dominated. Alexis Mead led all scorers with 23 points, eight assists, and six rebounds, almost a triple-double. Josie Gilvin scored 18 points, had six rebounds and four steals. Destiny Salary scored 17 points and had seven rebounds. Mackenzie Chatfield came off the bench and scored 11 points after Acacia Hayes went to the bench early in the first quarter. Acacia did not return. Hopefully she is OK, but we know nothing of her status at this time.
As both teams started pulling starters from the game in the fourth quarter, New Mexico State was able to cut deeply into the WKU lead and got it down to 17 when the final buzzer sounded. Josie Gilvin was pulled at the end of the third quarter. Seniors Destiny Salary, Alexis Mead, and Mariama Sow were pulled to standing ovations over the last few minutes of the game. It was special moments and I hope the players felt the love and appreciation from the crowd.
Baseball Sparkling
Up to the time of publication, WKU Baseball is 11-1 with a one point loss the lone blemish to a perfect season thus far. WKU has played decent mid-major competition, but frankly competition they should mostly beat, and mostly have. Although WKU has had few blowout victories like the one from Tuesday night when they run ruled Tennessee Tech at TTU 15-4 in eight innings, the Tops have hit over .100 better than its opponents and have been averaging winning by wide margins. It remains to be seen how flukish the Tops have been versus just simply showing the signs of being a really good team.
WKU Softball Back to Respectable Record After 0-2 Start
WKU Softball has six losses, two of which came to mid-major competition and four of which came against Power Five programs (UK and GT). At 13-6, the Tops are very capable and have yet to get blown out of the ballpark by the opponent. A team receiving votes in the polls, UK was down a run in the final inning during the first game Friday. The Tops kept it close in the game Saturday, but they weren’t able to get over the hump in the final game of the weekend.
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GO TOPS!!!!