Hilltoppers Open 2026-27 Season with 83-58 Win Over Morehead State

WKU Athletics Media Release

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — WKU Hilltopper Basketball opened the 2026-27 season with an 83-58 win over Morehead State on Monday night at E.A. Diddle Arena.

The Hilltoppers led for nearly 39 minutes and used a 51.5% shooting effort in the second half to build a lead as large as 32 points. Teagan Moore led four Hilltoppers in double figures with 17 points, while Gabe Weis added 14 in his collegiate debut, Sharron Young finished with 13 and Armelo Boone chipped in 10 points and team highs of nine rebounds and four steals.

HOW IT HAPPENED

WKU got on the board first with a layup from Armelo Boone, who followed with a pair of free throws before a layup from Teagan Moore gave the Hilltoppers a 6-0 lead. WKU held Morehead State scoreless for the first 3:06, but the Eagles responded with a 7-0 run to take their first lead, 7-6, with 14:48 remaining in the half.

LJ Hackman put the Hilltoppers back in front with a 3-pointer before Morehead State answered with a triple of its own. Boone followed with a 3-pointer and Moore converted a three-point play to give WKU a 15-10 advantage with 13:08 to play. The Eagles scored five straight to tie the game, but a Sharron Young triple and a Moore free throw put the Hilltoppers ahead, 19-15, with 11:13 on the clock.

The teams traded baskets before Young knocked down his second 3-pointer of the half to begin an 8-0 WKU run. Moore followed with another three-point play and another layup to push the Hilltoppers’ lead to double digits, 29-19, with 7:17 remaining.

Morehead State ended the run with a pair of free throws, but EJ Walker connected from beyond the arc to give WKU its largest lead of the half, 32-21, with 4:58 to play. The Eagles answered with five straight points to trim the deficit to six before two Hackman free throws and a jumper from Gabe Weis pushed the advantage back to 10. Morehead State responded with a jumper, but Moussa Konare threw down a put-back dunk with 1:28 remaining to give WKU a 38-28 lead at the intermission.

Boone opened the second-half scoring with a 3-pointer before a Moore layup and an Emondrek Erkins-Ford free throw helped the Hilltoppers build a 44-30 lead with 17:35 remaining. Morehead State scored five straight to cut the deficit to nine, but WKU answered with a 7-0 run that included layups from Moore and Konare. Young capped the run with a triple to give WKU a 51-35 lead with 14:59 to play.

The teams traded baskets before Weis scored five straight points on a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer to put WKU ahead, 58-40, with 13:18 remaining. The Hilltoppers continued to build their advantage, using another five straight points from Weis and a three-point play from Walker to cap an 8-0 run and take a 68-44 lead with 9:58 on the clock.

Following a Morehead State jumper, WKU put together another 8-0 run with a Hackman layup, two Moore free throws, a Weis layup and an alley-oop slam from Konare. The stretch pushed the Hilltoppers’ lead to 30, 76-46, with 6:11 remaining.

The Eagles scored five straight before layups from Young and Joseph Adebayo and a fast-break 3-pointer from Noah Norgaard gave WKU its largest lead of the game, 83-51, with 2:44 to play. Morehead State scored the final seven points, but the Hilltoppers closed it out for the 83-58 win.

NOTABLES

• WKU improves to 1-0 on the season, 74-32 all-time in season openers and 73-31 all-time against Morehead State.
• WKU’s starters for the game were LJ Hackman, EJ Walker, Armelo Boone, Emondrek Erkins-Ford and Teagan Moore.
• Thirteen of WKU’s 14 players saw action in the season opener. Gabe Weis, Gavin Murphy, Joseph Adebayo and Lawson Rice made their collegiate debuts while Erkins-Ford, Walker, Sharron Young, Moussa Konare, Noah Norgaard and Trevion LaBeaux made their WKU debuts. Konare also made his Division I debut.
• Four Hilltoppers scored in double figures. Moore led the way with 17 points, Weis added 14, Young finished with 13 and Boone chipped in 10.
• Moore shot 6-of-11 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line while adding three rebounds and two assists in 18 minutes.
• Weis scored 14 points in 17 minutes off the bench, shooting 5-of-9 from the field, 2-of-5 from 3-point range and 2-of-2 at the line. He added an assist, a block and a steal. His 14 points marked the highest scoring debut by a WKU freshman since Dayvion McKnight scored 21 points against Northern Iowa to open the 2020-21 season.
• Young finished with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including a 3-of-5 mark from beyond the arc. He dished out a team-high six assists with just one turnover in 23 minutes.
• Boone fell one rebound shy of a double-double, recording 10 points and a team-high nine boards. He knocked down 2-of-3 attempts from 3-point range, added three assists and collected a team-high four steals in 29 minutes. It is the second consecutive season Boone has recorded four steals in his season debut.
• Konare added eight points on 4-of-6 shooting and grabbed five rebounds, including three on the offensive glass, in 17 minutes off the bench.
• WKU’s bench contributed 42 points, with Young and Weis combining for 27.
• WKU shot 43.5% from the field, hitting 30-of-69 attempts, and went 10-of-28 (35.7%) from 3-point range.
• The Hilltoppers connected on 13-of-15 (86.7%) attempts from the free-throw line.
• WKU shot 51.5% from the field in the second half, making 17-of-33 attempts.
• The Hilltoppers collected 43 rebounds, including 13 offensive boards, and scored 16 second-chance points.
• WKU finished with 17 assists against just six turnovers, committing only two turnovers in the second half.
• The Hilltoppers recorded 11 steals and scored 16 points off 13 Morehead State turnovers.
• WKU scored 36 points in the paint and added 14 fast-break points.
• The Hilltoppers led for 38:44, while Morehead State held the lead for just 50 seconds.

QUOTABLES

“I think a pretty, pretty strong first game for us overall. I mean, we’ll watch the film and figure some things out, I’m sure, but it was good to see everybody get on the floor and for all the guys to have some success on both ends. I thought just about every player had a stretch where they really contributed in a major way and helped us go on a run.” — Mahurin Family Foundation Head Coach Hank Plona, on the season-opening win over Morehead State.

“First, I want to thank God for giving me this opportunity to play at this level and at this school, so I’m thankful for that. But just my teammates giving me the ball, just letting me get that first basket, get loose a little bit, and then they just continued to give me the ball. So, it was kind of up from there.” — F Gabe Weis, on his collegiate debut.

“We feel great right now. That was a great win for us. We work on this stuff all day, and we came out here just to compete and just play together.” — G Armelo Boone, on the season-opening win over Morehead State.

NEXT UP

The Hilltoppers return to the court on Thursday, Nov. 5, at home against Kentucky Wesleyan. Tipoff inside E.A. Diddle Arena is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT, with the game streaming live on ESPN+.