WKU Basketball: Toppers Hit Road For Duel With Southern Miss
Tonight, the Hilltoppers open a brief road trip as they’ll head to Hattiesburg to take on Southern Miss as WKU looks to be above .500 in…
Tonight, the Hilltoppers open a brief road trip as they’ll head to Hattiesburg to take on Southern Miss as WKU looks to be above .500 in conference play for the first time this season.
Game Info
Time: 7:00 p.m. CT
Location: Reed Green Coliseum| Hattiesburg, Mississippi
TV: Stadium, Stadium on Facebook, WKU-PBS
Radio: The Hilltopper IMG Sports Network
Much like the Tops, Southern Miss is trying to find their footing with the start of the conference campaign; the Golden Eagles dropped each of their first three conference games (against Louisiana Tech, Rice and North Texas, all on the road) but rattled off three straight wins against C-USA East squads (MT, UAB, Charlotte) before dropping their most recent decision to ODU.
The Golden Eagles’ bread and butter is defense — USM is tied for 29th in the country in points against, allowing just 64.4 per night.
On offense, USM is paced by a pair of senior guards in Cortez Edwards (13.5 points, 6.4 rebounds per game) and Tyree Griffin (12.7 points, 3.6 rebounds, 6.7 assists per game).
Down low, it’s the combination of Edwards and junior Leonard Harper-Baker (8.1 points, 7.5 rebounds) who get the job done, helping the Eagles average 36.1 rebounds a night.
If the Eagles hold a secret weapon, it’s sophomore guard LaDavius Draine, who has scored double-figures in every C-USA game except for one (ODU) off the bench, and is leading USM in conference points per game, logging 12.4.
The Hilltoppers are in a bit of a touch swing, playing their third game in six days (a stretch that’ll be four games in seven days, come Saturday) but on Monday, the short turnaround from Saturday’s win over FAU didn’t seem to phase them much — sure, the opening 20 minutes were incredibly sloppy, but it also was some of the best basketball we’ve seen from WKU in the final half.
Western Kentucky is at their best when the athletes are allowed to be athletes, and that’s best encapsulated in the multitudes of Josh Anderson fast breaks and dunks he threw down as part of their late-game run.
Tonight will be a great test to see where the Tops are; has this team truly hit a corner and are they what we thought they’d be all along, or have the last two games been a mirage?