Lady Topper Hoops: In Final Road Game, Lady Tops Head to Denton Seeking Revenge Saturday
Western Kentucky women’s basketball is a roller coaster thrill seekers dream of. With more ups and downs and twists and turns than King’s…
Western Kentucky women’s basketball is a roller coaster thrill seekers dream of. With more ups and downs and twists and turns than King’s Island and Cedar Point combined, Topper fans are ready to get off of the vomit comet and watch the Tops act like the champions they have traditionally been.
WKU (15–13, 9–5 C-USA) got off of the losing train this past Saturday, snapping a four game losing skid and defeating Marshall in a gutsy overtime victory, 69–66.
Dee Givens was her incredible usual, scoring 23 points, snagging 13 rebounds, dishing out three assists with only one turnover, and stealing twice from the Thundering Herd. Raneem Elgedawy (16 points, nine rebounds), Arame Niang (11 points, 4-of-5 from the field), and Alexis Brewer (11 points) all joined Dee in double figures.
Meral Abdelgawad (four points, five assists) continued her scoring struggles of late, but did contribute five dimes with only one turnover. Whitney Creech, the starting point guard all season, scored two points on five shots, grabbed six rebounds, and dished out four assists with only one turnover.
To illustrate the crazy, competitive nature of this game, no team led by more than seven points in the entire game. WKU led a majority of the time, but Marshall led for over ten minutes of the game, while the game was actually tied for more than five full minutes of game time.
The score was tied 12 times, while leads changed hands 18 times. At the end of each quarter, no one held a lead by more than one point until overtime, when WKU outscored the Herd 8–5. These are just incredible numbers.
Marshall, a team WKU blew out in Diddle by 30 in January, has massively improved since that point. Instead of the Herd looking like a pretender with an overall losing record, Marshall has surprised the entire conference, currently standing tied for fourth in Conference USA and actually has an overall winning percentage better than WKU at the moment. For perspective, Marshall was predicted to finish 13th in the C-USA preseason poll.
WKU heads into North Texas with something to prove, and if the Tops drop this game, things look incredibly bleak heading into a huge battle with MTSU next Thursday in Diddle. North Texas stands with a .500 record in conference, but UNT completely outworked the Lady Toppers on February 9th, leaving Bowling Green with a convincing 76–67 result.
WKU must enter Denton with an intention to win Saturday, or the Tops will drop down to at least a tie for 5th, but could potentially drop into a quagmire in the middle of the conference separated by one game in the standings.
If WKU were to win, the Tops would almost guarantee themselves a bye in the Conference USA Tournament. In addition, the Tops would be guaranteed a chance to tie or take the lead on Middle Tennessee in the standings and potentially climb as high as a second seed. If WKU could get into the third seed or better, they would avoid 24th ranked Rice, a team unblemished and virtually unchallenged in conference play with three overall losses, all of which were quality foes.
Despite the win against Marshall, no observant WKU fan could be thrilled with the trajectory of the Lady Tops. Western struggles defensively to a historic level. The Lady Toppers could potentially mark down the worst defensive effort in history if the wheels fall off. If they don’t completely and utterly change who they are, the Tops will give up the most points defensively since before Paul Sanderford became head coach.
Offensively, they’re slightly above average, scoring in the mid-70s all year. Considering the massive struggles defensively, this is an incredible offense, and sadly, this great set of offensive talent will likely be forgotten due to the horrendous defense.
Let’s keep in mind here that WKU has the all-time leading points scorer in KHSAA history (Whitney Creech), a 1,000 point scorer (Dee Givens), a returning Freshman of the Year (Raneem Elgedawy), a former Conference Tournament MVP (Sidnee Bopp), a current Freshman of the Year candidate (Meral Abdelgawad), and another sharpshooter averaging double digits (Alexis Brewer).
With that much firepower, a serviceable defense would get the Tops near a championship, and surely would yield more than praying for a run in the tournament to get to 20 wins. That serviceable defense is not there. Surely it’s time for us to ask, “Why?” and, “Can it be fixed?”
Frankly, you are what you are at this point in the season. Are they capable of winning a championship? If they’re a top three or four team in the conference, it’s always possible. If Rice loses, this conference is completely up for grabs.
That being said, this team has to be capable of playing defense. Are they? So far, they rarely play really good defense. They’ve played decent defense several times this season, but more often than not, it’s been historically awful defense.
With just about every Lady Topper article lately, I’m concluding it with something like this:
It’s go time, Lady Tops. If you’ve got something left in the tank, exhaust it. If the Tops dance, it most likely started Saturday with that win against Marshall. The Toppers take on UNT Saturday on the road and Middle at home next Thursday, March 7. Who is going to challenge Rice for a championship? Someone has to get consistent late in the season, or the Owls will waltz straight to the trophy.