WKU Basketball: Thompson, Johnson Pace Tops, Use Huge Second Half To Beat Southern Miss
WKU overcame a slow start with a blistering second half to down Southern Miss, 82–66, to win their 10th game of the season and move to 2–0…
WKU overcame a slow start with a blistering second half to down Southern Miss, 82–66, to win their 10th game of the season and move to 2–0 in C-USA play.
The Tops started slow, as it was 2–2 with 16:51 left in the first half, but the Tops spurted out to a 10–0 run to take a 12–2 lead near the 15-minute mark, and led 22–13 with 7:30 left in the frame.
WKU had big first halves from Justin Johnson, Dwight Coleby and a fast threeish minutes from Jake Ohmer, who saw nine minutes of first-half playing time after leaving Thursday’s La Tech game with an ankle injury. Johnson led all scorers at halftime with 10 points, and showed off his three-point stroke with a pair of threes to spark the offense.
Coleby was the rare paint-presnece in the opening half for WKU, who decided to settle for long shots (6-of-14 in the first half from three) instead of work the ball inside against the USM defense. Coleby had half of WKU’s 12 paint points in the first half.
The second half was a bit of a different story — the Tops showed flashes of fast breaks, good three point shooting and the ability to move the ball inside in the first half, but in the second 20 minutes, they were able to do so for the whole frame.
They were able to work the ball inside a bit easier (or, at least, more succesfully) to not have to rely on the deep ball so often, and Darius Thompson completely took over, who scored 12 of his 15 total points in the second half, including hitting three of his four three-point shots.
All game long, Southern Miss just struggled to hit shots — finishing the game with a 33.3% shooting percentage.
A couple of other stray thoughts from today,
This is the most complete game I think we’ve ever seen from Justin Johnson. He logged a double-double (15 points, 13 boards), went 3-for-3 from deep and was the player this Topper team has needed him to be time and time again. It was a fun performance to watch.
Taveion wasn’t the stat stuffer we’ve seen him be this year, but he was just as effective as we’ve seen all year as a ball handler and the floor quarterback.
Coleby is a great asset. A shame we will only have him for this year.
And really, that’s it. It was a tight first half but come the second, it turned into the game we thought it’d be.
With that, the Tops are off until next Saturday, when they take on the Herd in Huntington.
