Lady Tops: Liberty University Flames Outlast Western Kentucky Lady Toppers 62-59, Eliminate WKU from CUSA Tourney

Liberty led from the tip and never led by more than 11, but Western just could not score enough to come back. The Lady Tops battled a lack of size and nearly pulled it out.

The Western Kentucky Lady Toppers finish their season at 15-17, losing seven in a row and ten of the last 12. This is going to go down as a historic season, but not for the reason WKU players, coaches, or fans hoped. This is only the fourth losing season for Western Kentucky in the past 42 years.

With the win today, The Liberty University Flames are now 17-15 and will play the winner of FIU and New Mexico State on Friday. Liberty are winners of ten of their last 12 games. Only Middle Tennessee has beaten them in that stretch and only MTSU has a better record over the last 12 games.

Breaking Down This Game

Both teams struggled in the first quarter getting started on this neutral court in Huntsville, Alabama. Sometimes it feels like “carnival rims” and weird bounces with a new backdrop cause the first quarters to be a little slow. Western shot 4-of-18, scoring eleven points. Liberty shot 6-of-15, scoring 14 points. Down three after the first frame, Liberty extended its lead to the half time break. The score at the end of the half was WKU 25 - Liberty 32.

Western came out in the third quarter and outscored Liberty by four, cutting the lead to three, 46-43. The fourth quarter was back and forth with each team scoring 16. The Lady Toppers could not hit the key shot to gain a lead after cutting Liberty’s lead to one multiple times. Liberty’s greatest lead was 11, but most of the game was played with a margin of eight or less. Yet WKU never held a lead in this game despite multiple opportunities.

Statistic Leaders:

WKU’s Destiny Salary led all scorers with 22 points and nine rebounds in 36 minutes. Teresa Faustino added 12 points and two assists in 37 minutes. Acacia Hayes played 13 minutes scoring two on 1-for-4 shooting and a steal. Alexis Mead was injured during the first half and was clearly hobbled and bothered by it the entire game.

Liberty was led by Jordan Bailey and Asia Boone with 17 points each. Bella Smuda added ten points and 12 rebounds. Jordan Hodges had six assists and eight points.

Key Team Statistics

WKU shot only 36.5% from the field and only 26.9% from three. Liberty was 41.7% overall and 41.6% from three. Western was outrebounded 43-32, out assisted 16-12, and scored fewer fast break points. WKU did lead the paint points 26-22 and generated 18 points off 19 Liberty turnovers. WKU did some really good things against Liberty, but shooting and a lack of live ball turnovers really made it difficult for WKU to get over the hump.

How You Should Feel About This Game

This game was nothing short of a gutsy performance against a really good team, and WKU just couldn’t buy the shots and had some bad luck in key areas like live ball turnovers. For example, WKU forced Liberty into nearly 20 turnovers, but the Tops weren’t able to get out in transition as much because Liberty didn’t turn the ball over in open court very often. That minimized WKU’s chances offensively and kept WKU from scoring in the 60s and possibly giving itself a chance to win. That’s just some bad luck on that front.

There were some things to question in terms of coaching in this one, and it’s completely fair to question Greg Collins and his tenure here at WKU. That’s an unfortunate piece to this. However, in terms of how to think of the game itself, the Lady Tops fought extremely hard, were engaged, were trying to set aside their differences, and they nearly pulled it out. If you’re not sure how to feel, feel proud. They poured their guts out for this team and program, and there should be nothing but pride in their performance.

How to Feel About this Season

That’s a tougher one. This season was such a kick in the gut. Collins did one of his better coaching jobs in 2022-23, and it felt like the natural next step to have another good year, to be right there fighting with the conference’s best teams, and to flirt with an NCAA Tournament appearance.

That did not happen, and not only did it not happen, but we were made to feel like it might and then the Tops truly just completely crapped out to end the season. I think Topper fans have every right to be downright upset about how it went down this season. There were certain “unforgivable” type of issues that the Tops really shouldn’t have had to deal with this season on and off the court.

Unfortunately, you should probably feel pretty pissed about this season, to be honest.

Conclusion

WKU did not shoot the ball well 36.5% and did not generate enough live ball turnovers/steals (4) to win. This game was that close. It was right in their grasp. It’s just frustrating to finish this season the way it did. This is not Lady Topper Basketball, and it’s time somebody got upset about it. If Greg Collins is staying, what is his one year plan next year? If he is being released, get on a new candidate and start working at building this program back.

Either way, what is the plan here? Where is the program going? It was going fine when Greg Collins was an assistant and Michelle Clark-Heard was the head coach. It all of a sudden got very mediocre when Michelle left and Greg took her spot, presumably continuing her incredible model into the next step for WKU Athletics and WKU Lady Topper Basketball.

Well, that has not materialized. So we ask...what is the plan? Where do we go from here? I mean this is the darkest I ever remember Lady Topper Basketball at since going 9-20 under Mary Taylor Cowles. That was dark. COVID under Greg Collins was also dark.

This is as dark as it’s ever been, and it’s time to shed some light on what is going to be done to fix Lady Topper Hoops.