Hilltoppers Stay Unbeaten at Home With 78-51 Win Over Campbellsville

WKU Athletics Media Release

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — WKU Hilltopper Basketball improved to 3-0 at home with a 78-51 win over Campbellsville on Wednesday night inside E.A. Diddle Arena. The Hilltoppers move to 3-1 on the season.

Emondrek Erkins-Ford led WKU with a season-high 14 points, while Teagan Moore added 12 and Armelo Boone finished with 10. The Hilltoppers collected 17 steals, scored 32 points off 24 Campbellsville turnovers and held a 48-10 advantage in the paint. WKU closed the first half on an 8-0 run to build a 35-22 halftime lead before stretching its advantage to as many as 33 points.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• WKU opened the scoring on a Teagan Moore fast-break layup before an Emondrek Erkins-Ford layup gave the Hilltoppers a 4-1 lead. Campbellsville answered with back-to-back 3-pointers to move ahead, 7-4, but two LJ Hackman free throws, an Erkins-Ford triple and a Sharron Young jumper fueled a 7-0 run to give WKU an 11-7 advantage with 13:22 remaining.
• Campbellsville pulled within one before two Gabe Weis free throws and a Moussa Konare fast-break dunk pushed WKU’s lead to 15-10. Following a Tiger dunk, a Young triple sparked another 7-0 run that included a Weis layup and two Moore free throws, giving the Hilltoppers their first double-digit lead, 22-12, with 6:38 to play.
• Hackman connected from beyond the arc to restore the 10-point advantage, 25-15, with 5:44 remaining. Campbellsville scored five straight points before a Moore layup pushed the margin back to seven. The Tigers answered with a jumper to cut the deficit to 27-22 with 3:28 left.
• The Hilltoppers closed the half on an 8-0 run, with Armelo Boone and Joseph Adebayo scoring on layups before Boone added a free throw. Erkins-Ford capped the stretch with his second 3-pointer with 51 seconds remaining, sending WKU into the intermission with a 35-22 lead.
• WKU answered Campbellsville’s opening second-half basket with a 6-0 run that included a Weis dunk and two-pointers from Erkins-Ford and Young, pushing the lead to 41-24 with 16:43 remaining. The teams traded scores over the next stretch, with a Moore layup giving the Hilltoppers a 45-27 advantage with 14:07 to play.
• With WKU leading 47-32, a Boone free throw started an 11-0 run. Boone added a fast-break dunk, Hackman made four free throws and Konare scored consecutive baskets to extend the lead to 58-32 with 9:16 remaining.
• A Boone layup restored the 26-point advantage before Campbellsville scored five straight to trim the deficit to 60-39. Moore answered with consecutive layups before an Erkins-Ford layup pushed the lead to 66-39 with 5:30 to play. Another Erkins-Ford layup and an Adebayo dunk later extended the margin to 28 with 3:03 remaining.
• Following a Campbellsville 3-pointer, the Hilltoppers put together an 8-0 run on two triples and a layup to take their largest lead, 78-45, with 43 seconds remaining. The Tigers connected on two late 3-pointers to bring the final score to 78-51.

NOTABLES

• WKU improves to 3-1 on the season, 3-0 at E.A. Diddle Arena and 10-0 all-time against Campbellsville.
• WKU’s starters for the game were Sharron Young, Armelo Boone, Teagan Moore, EJ Walker and Emondrek Erkins-Ford. The group moves to 2-1 as a starting five.
• Three Hilltoppers scored in double figures. Erkins-Ford led the way with 14 points, followed by Moore with 12 and Boone with 10.
• Erkins-Ford scored a season-high 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting, making both of his 3-point attempts. He added four rebounds in 22 minutes.
• Moore finished with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting and made both of his free-throw attempts. He added three rebounds and two assists in 22 minutes. He has scored in double figures in 12 of his last 13 games, including five straight.
• Boone recorded 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting, adding five rebounds and an assist in 17 minutes.
• Young finished with seven points, a team-high six rebounds and a season-high six assists against no turnovers in 25 minutes. He now has 22 assists against just one turnover this season after entering the game ranked third nationally with a 16-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
• Hackman contributed nine points in 16 minutes off the bench, connecting on all six of his free-throw attempts and adding an assist. He is now 23-of-24 (95.8%) at the line this season.
• Weis scored eight points and added two rebounds and an assist in 13 minutes off the bench.
• Konare finished with six points on 3-of-6 shooting, five rebounds and an assist in 14 minutes off the bench.
• Adebayo scored four points on 2-of-2 shooting and added two rebounds in 10 minutes off the bench.
• WKU shot 44.1% from the field, connecting on 30-of-68 attempts, while holding Campbellsville to 38.0% (19-of-50).
• The Hilltoppers made 12-of-16 free throws (75.0%), compared to Campbellsville’s 2-of-6 (33.3%) performance.
• WKU collected 17 steals and scored 32 points off 24 Campbellsville turnovers.
• The Hilltoppers dished out 16 assists against nine turnovers, committing just two turnovers in the second half. WKU improves to 27-2 under Mahurin Family Foundation Head Coach Hank Plona when recording at least 14 assists.
• WKU outrebounded Campbellsville 42-30, including a 14-5 advantage on the offensive glass, and held a 22-2 edge in second-chance points.
• The Hilltoppers outscored the Tigers 48-10 in the paint and 12-8 in fast-break points.
• WKU led for 35:23, held a 35-22 halftime advantage and led by as many as 33 points.

QUOTABLES

“Obviously, happy to bounce back and get a win. Not sure that was our cleanest-played game, especially on the offensive end, but obviously a game where it’s probably good that everybody can get a little bit of playing time and get some experience on the floor. Obviously, we have a very difficult stretch in front of us, and we need to improve, get better and get right back to work here before Monday at Tulsa. So, I think we’re looking forward to doing that. We just talked about it as a group a little bit. If you’re not looking forward to doing that at this point, it’s probably going to be hard to get on the floor. So, we’re going to try to kind of figure out, from now until Monday night at 6:00 or whenever the tipoff is, what we’ve got to do to continue to improve, but also kind of get back to playing our best basketball. We’ll work hard the next five days to do that.” — Mahurin Family Foundation Head Coach Hank Plona, on the win over Campbellsville.

“I think we were just all right, from what Coach was saying. I think we believe that, too. We’ve got room for improvement, and we’re going to learn from this game and get better from it.” — G Sharron Young, on WKU’s defensive effort.

“They’re encouraging me in practice, and pregame they’re telling me to score the ball and be aggressive, then look for the other options. I’m just trying to be more aggressive and get to my go-to stuff. They’re telling me to do it, so I believe in them. I’ve got to believe in myself, too, and just keep doing it.” — F Emondrek Erkins-Ford, on his offensive performance.

NEXT UP

The Hilltoppers travel to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to face Tulsa on Monday, Nov. 16. Tipoff inside the Donald W. Reynolds Center is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT, with the game airing nationally on ESPNU.