Lady Toppers Get Back in Win Column with 71-57 Win vs. ODU

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — WKU women’s basketball needed a bounce back win and that’s what they did on Saturday afternoon against Old Dominion (16-5, 6-3 C-USA) in E.A. Diddle Arena. The Lady Toppers (15-7, 8-3 C-USA) earned a 71-57 win against the Monarchs to stop a three-game losing streak.

“For this young team to turn around after the Charlotte game — to feel like we played well enough to win that game and then lose that game at the end the way we did — to then come back and perform this way. This team doesn’t have a lot of quit in them. There’s a whole lot more fight than quit,” said head coach Greg Collins.

The Lady Toppers were led in scoring by Alexis Mead who finished with 15 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals. Her eight boards tied the 5-5 guard’s career high. Meral Abdelgawad and Jaylin Foster each had 13 points and Mya Meredith and Hope Sivori each added 11 points. It was the third time this season WKU has had five scorers in double figures and the Lady Toppers are 3-0 in 2021-22 when doing so.

WKU dominated on the glass, clearing 52 rebounds compared to Old Dominion’s 31. It was a season high number of rebounds for WKU and it was the largest margin on the boards for WKU this season. The Lady Toppers improve to 7-2 on the season and 41-9 under Collins when outrebounding their opponents.

Meredith, Macey Blevins and Gabby McBride all had seven rebounds in the game and Foster pulled down six. Abdelgawad led the team in assists with five on the night.

The Lady Toppers came out on fire in the first quarter, scoring 27 points which is the most allowed in a single period by Old Dominion all season. WKU scored 22 points in the fourth quarter, making them the only team this season to score 20-plus in two periods against the Monarchs. Old Dominion came into the game as the league’s leader in points allowed, giving up just 51.4 points per game. WKU’s 71 against the Monarchs is tied for the most by a team all season.

WKU improves to 7-0 this season and 26-4 under Collins when holding teams below 60 points. The Lady Toppers have held five C-USA teams below 60 this season.

WKU got off to a big lead, ahead by as much as 26 in the second quarter. The Lady Toppers’ hot shooting went cold in the third quarter when WKU went just 1-of-16 from the field. That gave Old Dominion room to make a comeback and the Monarchs had their best offensive quarter with 22 points to get within five of WKU.

Sivori did most of her damage in the fourth quarter, scoring the first five points of the frame for WKU on a three and layup. The Monarchs hung around for a few minutes, but back-to-back threes from Sivori and Mead with less than five minutes iced the game for WKU.

The Lady Toppers will be back in action next week with a split schedule. WKU travels to Florida Atlantic for another East division showdown on Thursday, Feb. 10. The Lady Toppers previously defeated the Owls 73-49 on January 20. WKU will then return home to host UTSA on Sunday, Feb. 13 at 1 p.m.