WKU Basketball: Toppers Take on Bears
WKU returns to the hardwood this evening to take on Missouri State, making a return trip after the two met to open the regular season in…
WKU returns to the hardwood this evening to take on Missouri State, making a return trip after the two met to open the regular season in Diddle Arena last year in which the Hilltoppers couldn’t shake off a horrid start in a five point loss.
Game Info
Time: 7 p.m. CT
Location: JQH Arena | Springfield, Mo.
TV: ESPN+
Radio: The Hilltopper IMG Sports Network
Ahead of last year’s matchup, Missouri State was a popular choice to win the MVC, and pretty dominantly so, but sputtered to an 18–15 overall record and a 7–11 mark in conference play. Those disappointments led to the ousting of Paul Lusk as head coach.
Fast forward to this year and the Bears have struggled, albeit their schedule saw quite an uptick in talent. After winning three straight games to open the year against Oral Roberts, Robert Morris and Stetson, the MOST have lost five consecutive decisions against Nebraska, USC, Murray State, Air Force and Oregon State.
The Bears have two key scoring threats, one from outside and one from inside. Senior guard Jarred Dixon leads the Bears in scoring, averaging 17.4 points over eight games while junior forward Tulio Da Silva is averaging 16.7 points along with a team-best seven rebounds a night.
Missouri State also doesn’t score a ton, having scored 80 or more points just three times this season.
The Hilltoppers, meanwhile, are coming off a win, yes, but another struggling offensive performance (although their game plan heading into Saturday’s win against Tennessee State was to get as many whistles as possible inside, which worked).
With Taveion Hollingsworth at point guard, the offense looked better at times, but not near consistently enough to please WKU fans.
I know it sounds ridiculous to be that nitpicky over a game in which four starters finished in double figures, but the Tops shot just 45% in the first half (it did improve in the second half) and just 30.8% from three (which doesn’t bode well for a team who lives and dies by it as much as the Tops do).
If WKU doesn’t pull a “don’t show up,” like they did against Indiana State, I like their chances tonight. Continue to work out the kinks in the offense (it wont be long now until Lamonte Bearden is able to return), feed the ball to Charles Bassey inside and contain MoSt’s two point scorers and see if you can get your fifth win of the year.
Hopefully, this ESPN+ feed wont crap out like Saturday’s did.