WKU Basketball: Hilltoppers Hold Off Eagles; Win Third Straight, 66–63
I’m going to be real with you all — there wasn’t much that was exciting about Western Kentucky’s win on Thursday over Southern Mississippi.
I’m going to be real with you all — there wasn’t much that was exciting about Western Kentucky’s win on Thursday over Southern Mississippi.
The Tops never played as well as many may have wanted, especially coming off the heels of their performance against Marshall on Monday, and never played as poorly as it felt, especially as Southern Miss opened the second half on a 23–13 run to open the second half, pulling within one possession after the Tops took a 34–21 lead into the halftime locker room.
The Tops used a 28–10 run to close the half strong, but Southern Miss made up for it with their run out of the second half game, thanks in large part to the hot shooting from LaDavius Draine, who 12 of his 15 points in the second half.
After a WKU timeout from Rick Stansbury as the Eagles cut the game to three points in the early stages of the second half, it was smooth sailing from there. Sure, it got close but the Tops never let it get out of hand and the 66–63 final score is really not indicative of how wide open the game was for the Tops outside of that early burst from USM.
The most notable things in the aftermath of this one are injuries sustained by both Josh Anderson and Dalano Banton — neither were serious enough to sideline them for long; Anderson took an elbow to the nose in the final minute or so of the first half but came back strong in the second.
And Banton tripped and fell at midcourt as part of a wild back-and-fourth sequence where he turned the ball over but got back on defense for the block and appeared to have hit his chin pretty well. He also returned.
I apologize for the lack of in-depthness with this recap, but honestly, the story is this; WKU got out to a sluggish start, roared back late in the first 20, led at halftime, almost allowed USM to tie or take a lead out of the gate in the second half, but the Toppers regained control of the game and are on a three-game winning streak.
Final Stats
