WKU Basketball: Tops Hold On In Double Overtime to Beat Rice, 92–85
In a super exciting double overtime game, WKU (14–10, 7–4 in C-USA) were able to defeat the Rice Owls (9–15, 4–7 in C-USA) without coach…
In a super exciting double overtime game, WKU (14–10, 7–4 in C-USA) were able to defeat the Rice Owls (9–15, 4–7 in C-USA) without coach Stansbury on the road in Houston as the Tops now take fourth place in the conference.
Not sure anyone would’ve expected this close of a game but here we are.
Josh Anderson finished with 24 points, nine rebounds, and four steals as well as this SportsCenter Top 10 worthy posterization to help lead the Tops to victory.
Jared Savage finished with 21 points on 5–12 shooting from deep and Charles Bassey finished with another double-double (10 points, 14 rebounds as well as five blocks) despite only having two points in the first half. Lamonte Bearden had 16 points and 11 assists and Taveion Hollingsworth finished with 10 points on another bad shooting night.
Rice’s Ako Adams finished with 23 points on 7–14 shooting from downtown including a clutch three to send the game into its second overtime.
With Houston Rockets star James Harden in attendance, both teams caught fire shooting from deep in the first half. Perhaps most notably, Jared Savage made the first three of the game for WKU extending the Tops three-point streak to 1,000 consecutive games with at least one made three.
The Tops would get an early eleven point lead but would end up losing it quickly due to many turnovers and terrible shots. WKU had 16 turnovers for the game but were still able to lead at the half 44–42.
Rice would keep their momentum going in the second half mostly due to Bassey being in foul trouble and at one point had a 13 point lead over the Tops.
Once Bassey came in to stay, things started to change. WKU would end regulation on a 14–1 run as Rice was be without a made field goal in the last 8:00 minutes of regulation. Anderson looked like he had a jump ball at the end of the regulation but Rice would get two free throws instead but only made one of them making the game tied at 71 at the end of regulation.
The first overtime kept the energy and momentum the whole game had with a lot of back and forth shooting. Momentum changed with Anderson’s ridiculous slam but WKU had a chance to win the game at the last second with a Bearden lay in but Bassey thought the ball was off the cylinder and slammed it home but it was ruled offensive interference as the game would go into its second overtime tied at 80 all.
The second overtime was when you could tell several players but especially the crowd were tired. Rice still wouldn’t go away but Bassey came through with some big blocks to help WKU keep possession of the ball as WKU dominated the second overtime and finished it 95–85.
It was quite a fun game despite WKU struggling at times but a win is a win. WKU now prepares to play the C-USA leader North Texas on Saturday.
Here’s some box scores:
