WKU Basketball: Tops Drop 5th Straight CUSA Game, Loses to MTSU 93-85
The Blue Raiders shot 15 three-pointers to give WKU another painful Conference USA blunder
Saturday’s game at Diddle Arena created more pressure on the Hilltoppers to snap a four-game losing streak. It also didn’t help that today’s opponents were the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, a true competitor with some history between these ball clubs. The latest installment of the “100 Miles of Hate” rivalry still came with a glimmer of hope for some good things to happen for Rick Stansbury and Company.
The opening tip was won by WKU and for most of the first half, it was a back and forth sequence between the two rivals. After a few minutes of several lead changes, MTSU was able to start pulling away by increasing out the three-point shooting barrage. The perimeter defense was a struggle as MTSU began extending the lead in the first half.
Other than MTSU making eight 3-pointers in the first half, the Tops did have some turnover efficiency. They were able to score 12 points off of nine MTSU takeaways. Dayvion McKnight led the Tops with 15 points as the half expired with a buzzer beating three-pointer.
In the second half, it was still all Middle as they continued to shoot well from almost every corner on the court. Western eventually calmed down and was able to try for a comeback. The Blue Raiders kept on shooting the three ball well despite allowing Western to trim the defcit. With the lead changes, the biggest defcit for WKU was 14 points.
Even in the last five minutes of the game, Jarius Hamilton and Luke Frampton were able to trim the deficit to just five points after scoring 3 different three-pointers to shorten the lead to 79-74.
The Blue Raiders kept on leading to grab a confidence building road win over WKU. The final score was 93-85 as the Tops have dropped their fifth straight loss.
Thre isn’t really much to say about today’s loss. The Tops fell victim to a waning perimeter defense as the Blue Raiders had their best shooting day all season. Going into today’s game, MTSU was shooting 29 percent from the three point line.
The Tops will try again to snap the losing streak with a road game on Thursday, Febrary 3rd in Charlotte. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN Plus with a 6pm tip off time.
Here are the final stats from today’s loss at Diddle:
Time for Rick to go. Losing record is a real possibility