WKU Basketball: Tops’ Season Ends Against La Tech, 59-57

The Tops fall in Frisco at the hands of the Bulldogs and send the Hilltoppers home

Photo credit: Tanner Spearman

Western Kentucky saw their season come to an end tonight as Louisiana Tech beat the Tops for the second time this season, 59-57.

Dayvion McKnight had 20 points and played with heart but sadly the Tops weren’t able to pull this one out while they shot 35% from the field and only 14% from deep.

Josh Anderson had 16 points and Cam Justice added 15 points as they finish their careers as Hilltoppers. Jamarion Sharp had four points, ten rebounds, and six blocks.

This was a terrible night to go cold from deep and two of the Tops’ best three point shooters in Cam Justice and Luke Frampton shot a combined 2-of-13 from deep and Frampton didn’t score the entire game.

Meanwhile La Tech shot 45% from the field and 40% from deep and were led by Keaston Willis with 17 points and their star Kenneth Lofton Jr. had 15 points and 12 rebounds.

The Tops didn’t get off to a good start in this game at all and were down by ten points just three minutes into the game. They struggled to score and never led in the first half and were down by as much as 14 but WKU did narrow the gap before halftime and were down 36-33 at the half.

In the second half, it was closer and the Tops finally got the lead with just a little under ten minutes left. The last four minutes were nerve racking and suspenseful as it stayed a close game until the final whistle.

The Tops had their chances though. Lofton scored with 23.8 seconds left in the game to lead 58-57 and WKU came down the other end and Sharp was fouled with eight seconds left. That was not the best case scenario for WKU because Sharp is a 40% free throw shooter and he missed both of the free throws that would’ve either tied or taken the lead had he made both. Lofton got the rebound, was fouled, and split free throws and Justice had a very contested Hail Mary attempt that fell short as Tech would hold on, 59-57.

If we’re being honest, a lot of us thought this would happen. Especially during that 2-5 losing spell and start to C-USA play when the team fell under .500 at 10-11. But the Tops didn’t lay down and die after that start. They were able to still go on and win most of their remaining games to still get a second seed in the East to finish 19-13 overall on the season.

I’m still disappointed this is how the season will end and while we can all argue over “what ifs” all off-season, I’m thankful to see the perseverance this team had when we all had written them off in January.

We will now wait and see during the off-season to see who Rick Stansbury is able to bring in and retain on his roster. If he’s able to get some good pieces to build around McKnight and Sharp (with the return of Jordan Rawls in December) we can hopefully see a stronger and deeper team in 2022-2023.

Until then, we will still have lots of off-season articles, discussions, and updates as they come.

Here are your final final stats on the season from Frisco: