Hilltoppers fall at home to Jacksonville State

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Thursday night, the WKU men’s basketball team played in their first home Conference USA game of the season facing off with Jacksonville State, a team that sits second in the league in averaging almost 81 points per game, and after a close matchup featuring 12 lead changes and a physical battle at the rim, the Tops fell just short of the victory, losing 73-67.

Heading into the game, an area that the Tops were looking to improve on was coming out of the gate stronger, and WKU demonstrated much improvement on that end, notching their highest first half three-point shooting percentage so far of conference play and heading into halftime with the 27-24 advantage

While WKU’s shooting remained predictable, the Gamecocks found their grove in the second half, shooting 56% from the field and out rebounding the Hilltoppers 50-30 throughout both halves of the game.

After the match, the team explained just how much that rebounding margin impacted other performances on the court.

“ We just got out rebounded tonight, we weren’t boxing out, we just weren’t executing on the defensive side, and it translated to the offense, as you see our shots weren’t falling because, you know, we weren’t taking care on the defensive side,” freshman guard Julius Thedford said. “You’re not going to get rewarded with, you know, good shots and good plays if you’re not doing what you got to do on the defensive side.”

“It’s hard to win games when it’s 50-to-30 on the glass, and until late in the game, we weren’t really getting offensive rebounds,” head coach Hank Plona said. “I think they had 20 defensive rebounds at halftime, and we had one offensive, so, like I said, right around the rim, you’ve got to give it all you got. When we have that resolve and that extra effort, we’ve shown that we can succeed, but you have to do that for 40 minutes to win. You can’t just turn it on.”

With the loss, the Hilltoppers now look ahead to staying at home to take on Kennesaw State on Saturday, and since the Owls also picked up a loss Thursday night, both teams will be fighting to get back in the win column in just two days.

Tipoff in Diddle Arena for the contest between the Tops and Owls is set for 2 p.m.