WKU Basketball: Tops Open Up NIT With 79–62 Pounding of BC
Playing in their first postseason tournament since 2013, WKU came out and thoroughly handled Boston College, 79–62, in front of a rowdy…
Playing in their first postseason tournament since 2013, WKU came out and thoroughly handled Boston College, 79–62, in front of a rowdy crowd of 6,176 at Diddle Arena to garner their 25th victory of the season.
After a frustrating Conference USA tournament final offensively, this game started off as a free flowing, up and down shootout. The first quarter ended with Boston College leading 24–19 as both teams shot over 55% from the field.
That pace didn’t hold up as both teams went on scoring droughts in the second quarter as WKU’s defense tightened up. The Tops did find a way to put some distance between themselves and the Eagles taking a 41–33 halftime lead to the locker room on the strength of 13 first half points by Justin Johnson.
The hot second quarter extended into the third as the Tops continued to open up the game and feed off the crowd with two back to back slams by Johnson and Thompson extended the lead to 50–37.
WKU took a 59–44 lead into the final quarter as Taveion Hollingsworth kept the crowd going with a last second three. The Tops continued their impressive performance by slowing down the Eagles and closing out to an impressive 19 point victory over their ACC opponent.
Here are some post game thoughts of the Tops dominant victory
Justin Johnson keeps playing like a man possessed; he finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds, his fifth straight double-double. It’s great to see Johnson continue to shine is his last days as a Hilltopper as he continues to skyrocket up WKU’s career statistical leaderboard.
Not to be outdone, Darius Thompson once again stuffed the stat sheet, finishing with 17 points, eight assists and six rebounds on the night. He returned to his facilitating self and the Tops offense returned to their high scoring ways. He is the straw the stirs the drink for the Tops
Stansbury opened up his rotation with Ohmer and Diagne playing over their recent-high for minutes and Ohmer responding with eight points.
Hollingsworth was back to his old self, finishing with 18 points, five rebounds and four assists as he passed Courtney Lee’s all-time Freshman scoring record. He’s going to be an all-time great one by the time he is done and one can only how much that elbow by Peneva neutralized him in the C-USA Championship game.
Josh Anderson needs to improve his free throw percentage. He went just 1–4 from the line and Stansbury opted to play the other players as a result. He needs to get to at-least 65% next season as he’ll be a focal point next year with Johnson, Thompson and Coleby all gone.
Overall, I liked the experimental rules for the NIT; you could tell the spacing opened up a lot and the foul reset sped up the game a tad with less breaks. I for one hope results like tonight lead to the NCAA changing the rules.
It was still weird not always remembering when TV time outs occurred the bonus foul situation, and the shot clock reset
Lamonte Bearden hit two three pointers tonight. I don’t think he’ll ever be a good shooter but if he could get his three point percentage to 30–35% then it would take his game to another level next season.
The up-and-down pace did lead to some sloppy play as the Tops finished with 11 turnovers.
WKU shot 55.4% on the game. That’ll keep them in almost any game but it was also great seeing the Tops hold the Eagles to just 38.5% shooting and causing the Tops to run away with this one.
Watching on TV, you could tell the atmosphere at Diddle was raucous. It was great seeing the Tops sell over 6100 seats despite the quick turnaround and the students on spring break. Bowling Green is finally embracing basketball again and I’m excited to see if they can set a modern attendance record next season.
With the win, the Tops advance to the second round of the NIT and will face the winner of USC and UNC-Asheville. Should the Trojans win, the Tops will head to California this weekend with the time/date to be determined.
This season has been pretty magical despite having to settle for the NIT, let’s hope we have a few more weeks to relish this special group.
Here are your final stats from the Tops 25th victory of the season.
