WKU Basketball: Hilltoppers Outlast Razorbacks, 78–77
Western Kentucky really couldn’t have started their afternoon against the Arkansas Razorbacks any worse, but persisted, found their…
Western Kentucky really couldn’t have started their afternoon against the Arkansas Razorbacks any worse, but persisted, found their footing and eventually made Arkansas play their game as the Hilltoppers hung on for a 78–77 victory to move to 5–4 on the season.
The game opened much like Wednesday’s game against Missouri State ended — with the Razorbacks hitting seemingly everything in sight and opening the game on a 17–8 run.
Fortunately for the Tops, from there, the Razorbacks went cold, hitting just one of their next nine from the floor, allowing the Hilltoppers to fight back and, eventually, tie the game at 22–22, but Arkansas rattled off a 19–11 streak to take a 41–33 lead into halftime.
During that run at the end of the half, Hilltopper guard Josh Anderson was ejected from the game for a Flagrant 2 foul after making contact with the head of Isaiah Joe while trying to make a block.
Make the call for yourself if it was warranted, but it saw the end of Anderson’s night, who finished with three points and two rebounds in 13 minutes as a bench player.
Anderson’s ejection must have sparked something fierce in the Tops’ locker room, because they opened the second half on fire with a 14–5 run and shot over 62% from the floor in the same time span.
WKU took their first lead of the game on a Jared Savage three with 16:42 to play to make it, 47–46 and from there, the Hilltoppers relinquished the lead just once, when Arkansas led 77–76 with 45 seconds to play, and never led by more than eight, keeping the Razorbacks at bay but was never able to completely finish them off.
With one second remaining, Arkansas had an inbounds opportunity to attempt to take a lead, but the inbounds pass was too far behind Daniel Gafford who still made a good play on the ball, but had to fall sideways to get a shot off before the buzzer.
Especially coming off of Wednesday’s awful loss against Missouri State, this is a great win for a young Hilltopper club. The Tops were led by arguably the three most important cogs in the offensive machine — 21 from Charles Bassey (a number that led all players), 20 from Jared Savage ( who went 5-for-7 from beyond the arc) and 17 from Taveion Hollingsworth, who shared point guard duties with Dalano Banton and got more comfortable away from point as the game progressed.
The second half was maybe the best 20 minutes the Hilltoppers have played this year (although, I’m willing to claim recency bias, again [not to beat a dead horse] but especially after how out of sync they looked for a majority of Wednesday’s performance) — the ball was moving well, no selfish shots were taken and they were able to win by one on the road against a power team.
The next time the Toppers take the floor, Lamonte Bearden will be running point. So, you know, get excited for that.
Final Thoughts
Just a couple tonight— first, this fun stat, courtesy of WKU Basketball and Brad Stephens:
This very well may have been the coming out party for Dalano Banton and Tolu Smith. Especially Banton, who logged 38 minutes (thanks, mostly, to Anderson’s ejection) and again, like on Wednesday, his statline doesn’t show how effective he was (five points, three rebounds, seven assists).
On the point of Tolu, he too outplayed his statline, although he was huge in the seven minutes he logged (it felt like he played more, to be honest). Those two are going to be a fun duo for years to come.
Final Stats
