WKU Basketball: Tops Lose Nailbiter at FAU 69–65
WKU Basketball hit the road tied in the loss column with North Texas for first in Conference USA that would change as FAU made the plays…
WKU Basketball hit the road tied in the loss column with North Texas for first in Conference USA that would change as FAU made the plays down the stretch that WKU couldn’t match handing WKU its second conference loss 69–65.
WKU sprinted out to a 12–0 lead in the first four minutes on the strength of two Jordan Rawls three-pointers and some Josh Anderson dunks. Florida Atlantic would slowly creep back into the game eventually and would go on a 10–0 run to take a 28–26 lead around the 5-minute mark. WKU would end the half on a 7–2 run and go to the locker room up 33–30 after shooting 44.8% from the field.
FAU wouldn’t go away in the second half. After the Hilltoppers extended the lead to six points in the first two and a half minutes, FAU would go on a 7–2 run and take the 43–32 lead with 14:26 remaining.
The Owls then started to heat up from deep and would extend their lead to as many as four points before Taveion Hollingworth tied it up on a layup at 58 around the five-minute mark.
FAU would stay hot-hitting from deep their fifth three-pointer of the second half and would take a 5 point lead with 2:58 remaining.
Josh Anderson would respond by getting a tough and one bucket, making the free throw and cutting the Owl lead to two with 2:02 remaining. WKU would get consecutive stops on defense to hang around as they took a timeout down two with 1:05 remaining.
WKU would get the ball to Taveion Hollingsworth who dumped it to Carson Williams who drew the foul and made both free throws to tie it up at 65 with 45 seconds left. WKU would force an airball by FAU’s Cornelius Taylor but WKU’s putrid rebounding would come back to haunt them as Jaelyn Ingram would grab the offensive board away from Jared Savage and put it back with 21 seconds left to give FAU a two-point lead.
WKU’s late-game offense also melted down as Taveion Hollingsworth tried to drive to the lane and got a shot blocked with 7 seconds remaining. The ball ended up going off of Hollingsworth and WKU was on the brink with only four team fouls in the game.
The Owls would drain the clock down to 2.2 seconds after WKU fouled three times. They would hit both of their free throws putting the game out of reach and extending their home winning streak to 11 straight handing WKU a 69–65 loss moving the Hilltoppers to 14–7 (7–2) in Conference USA on the season.
Here are some thoughts on tonight’s tough loss:
WKU had been playing on the razor edge lately and it came back to bite them tonight. WKU allowed FAU to outshoot them 50% to 35% in the second half and still almost won the game. Little things (below) caused WKU to lose this one.
Taveion Hollingsworth’s mid season resurgence continued tonight as he finished with 18 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists (and only one turnover). He wasn’t very efficient tonight (8–18) but it definitely beats how he was playing earlier in the season when he would disappear for long stretches.
WKU won the turnover battle 15–9. If you told me they’d do that I would guess they’d win 9 times out of 10.
That margin was partially negated by the rebounding margin which was 40–32 in FAU’s favor. There were simply too many second chances (14 offensive boards) for WKU to overcome with the Ingram offensive rebound at the end being the most glaring.
Another thing that helped swing the Owl victory was three-point shooting. They made 10 triples to just 4 for WKU. Several of those were in the second half and kept the Hilltoppers behind the eightball.
Josh Anderson had arguably his best game of the season finishing with 20 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 steals. His presence on the defensive end continues to be the biggest bright spot on a flawed defensive team.
Another area where had a significant advantage was the foul shooting situation. They had 16 foul shots (81% made) to just 6 for FAU (83%) and was another reason they stayed in the game despite poor shooting from the field
Jared Savage continues to do the dirty work for the Tops. He finished with 12 rebounds, 13 points and two steals which is more than enough from him on any given night.
Carson Williams struggled with FAU’s size and had a badly timed off night scoring just six points and grabbing six rebounds. His lack of production down low forced WKU to shoot way too many jumpers in the second half.
Stansbury didn’t trust his bench yet again tonight as Justice, Gambrell, and Cozart combined for just 21 minutes on the night scoring 0 points and not playing in the second half. You could tell the starters were visibly tired at various points in the game. Stansbury’s refusal to trust his bench to buy his starters breaks haunted this team tonight.
Life on the road is hard, tonight’s loss is just the latest example of that. If this team didn’t have championship aspirations this loss would be easier to swallow. Now they’ve got a very little margin for error if they want to stay close to North Texas and Louisiana Tech in the regular-season championship race.
WKU continues their Florida road swing on Saturday at 11 AM against Florida International (14–8, 5–4 in CUSA). FIU also lost tonight (against Marshall). Both teams will be hungry for a victory, WKU must bounce back or a promising conference start may unravel on the road.
Here are your final stats from tonight’s road loss
