WKU Basketball: Tops Humbled by Louisville, 75–54

Arriving home to the Bluegrass State off of a 2–1 run at the Bad Boy Mowers Classic, the Hilltoppers had no time to mull over their loss to…

Arriving home to the Bluegrass State off of a 2–1 run at the Bad Boy Mowers Classic, the Hilltoppers had no time to mull over their loss to West Virginia. On this frigid Tuesday evening, their attention was focused on in-state rivals, the Louisville Cardinals.

Tonight’s game began a series of games at the KFC Yum! Center in another NCAA Basketball bubble atmosphere. Deep in ACC Conference territory, the Tops took advantage of the opportunity to try & beat the Cards for the first time since 2008.

Starting at opening tip-off, the Tops created a sizable 8–5 lead within the first four minutes. This began with a famous Charles Bassey slam:

This included a run of eight straight points after Louisville edged ahead after winning the possession battle early. After the first timeout, the Tops were ahead 10–8.

The game continued to go back and both in what seems to be a battle of the deep shooters. At least, WKU called their own number courtesy of back to back threes from Luke Frampton & Jordan Rawls. As their biggest lead of the game so far was by 8 points, the Tops grew to enjoy a 25–20 lead with 7:51 left in the first half. Louisville quickly came back on a 10–0 run, taking back the lead 27–25 with 5:04 in the first half. Things went from bad to worse as the Tops didn’t score a bucket for almost seven minutes. Thankfully, another Charles Bassey slam dunk broke the streak. The Cardinals did a solid job defensively of containing Western during the cold streak. After the first half, the Cards now lead the game, 34–29.

As WKU got the possession in the second half, everything still went Louisville’s way. Through the first five minutes, the Tops never regained the lead. Although the Tops became close, this didn’t go in their favor. Through the halfway mark of the first half, the Tops were trailing in double digits. As of 8:22, the Cards were leading the game 55–41. The Cards kept control of the ball game as they were able to expose the playcalling. This includes making the outside shots from lack of defense, especially on the open three-point shooting. Trickling down to the final minutes, it was Louisville who kept the lead open and gave no chances to WKU in terms of a come from behind fighting attempt. After a long second half, it was the Louisville Cardinals who got the victory to remain undefeated, 75–54.

Notes from tonight’s game:

The defense got the best of the Tops tonight. With 8 steals and 19 turnovers caused by Louisville, this draws some concern about our ability to possess the ball. This was not a good night once things slowed down from the opening start.

The early intensity of outside shooting has also killed any chances of us keeping a lead. The Tops went 3 out of 17 in made three-pointers after the first surge of points in the first half. We abandoned our signature interior offense strategy, which caused the Cards to take full advantage.

Charles Bassey was still fairly dominant in tonight’s loss. He managed to get another double-double which includes 16 rebounds.

Tavieon Hollingsworth is definitely going to be the glue that holds this team together going forward. His 19 points made him the leading scorer. The rest of the team’s output would have made the difference in helping him out.

The Tops are now 2–2 on the young season, awaiting their next chances of going back to top tier ball on Friday against Arkansas-Little Rock.

Here are the final stats from tonight’s loss in Louisville: