WKU Basketball: Tops Exact Revenge On EKU, Roll To 83–51 Win
On Wednesday night, WKU successfully returned home to Diddle Arena to a season high crowd of 5,532 fans and routed cross state rival…
On Wednesday night, WKU successfully returned home to Diddle Arena to a season high crowd of 5,532 fans and routed cross state rival Eastern Kentucky 83–51 to move to 5–2 on the season.
WKU started out slow in the first half with Taveion Hollingsworth scoring eight of WKU’s first 12 points as the Tops continued their slow pace that they played in Atlantis. But, the Tops created some separation in the final 12 minutes and took a 31–17 halftime lead.
WKU stifled the Colonels (3–4) in the first half, forcing them to shoot just 31% as the Tops held EKU’s star play Nick Mayo to just two points in the first half and forced nine turnovers.
WKU sprinted out to a 48–26 lead in the first four minutes of the second half on a perfect 7-for-7 shooting start. Over the course of the last 20 minutes, WKU put on a shooting clinic, shooting 66.7% including 7-of-10 from three-point range as WKU easily dominated the Colonels for the 31 point victory.
It was great to see Stansbury, Justin Johnson and Tyler Miller avenge their 78–56 defeat to the Colonels last season. The Tops once again had another balanced effort from their seven scholarship players, with all of them scoring 10 or more points, led by 16 points from Lamonte Bearden, six assists and three rebounds in 32 minutes.
This team continues to be fun to watch and tonight's victory shows they can dominate inferior mid-major competition. It’s still amazing to see how well this team has gelled since the opener against Missouri State. They all share the ball and tonight showed they can shoot teams out of games if other teams aren’t ready to play defense against them.
While EKU isn’t a offensive juggernaut, WKU held them to just 51 points on 36.8% shooting while out rebounding them, 38–28. This game is just another step in the process of WKU returning to their status of an elite mid major program and this past week’s games have been a blast to watch.
The Hilltoppers return to action on Saturday as they host Wright State (4–3) at 4 p.m.
Here are your final WKU stats:
