Lady Toppers drop close game against New Mexico State

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU women’s basketball (4-10, 0-3 CUSA) fell in the final seconds to New Mexico State (6-9, 2-1 CUSA) on Thursday evening in E.A. Diddle Arena.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Trinity Rowe, Torri James, Mya Pratcher, Zsofia Telegdy and Caleigh-Rose West were the first five on the court for WKU for the second consecutive game. Pratcher was the first to score in the game on WKU’s first possession of the game. New Mexico State responded with a 5-0 run to take the lead. Zsofia Telegdy hit a pair of free throws at the 5:14 mark, but the Aggies scored six straight to go ahead by seven with 1:40 left. Salma Khedr scored her first points of the game to stop the run, but New Mexico State scored four straight. A three from Tatum Boettjer cut the score to 15-9 just before the end of the first quarter.

Khedr scored seven straight points to open the second quarter to put WKU ahead for the first time since the beginning of the game. A three from New Mexico State swung the score back the other way, but Tia Shelling tied the game on the next possession. The Aggies made back-to-back 3-pointers to go back ahead. From there, WKU outscored New Mexico State 14-4 to take a 32-28 lead into halftime.

The two teams went back and forth to open the third quarter, but a 6-0 run by WKU with 3:19 left in the quarter gave the Lady Toppers a 46-38 lead. Both teams traded baskets and then New Mexico State went on a 6-0 run to cut the lead to one with 41 seconds left in the period. A layup from Jeniffer Silva put WKU up by three, but the Aggies scored with three seconds left to make it a 51-50 lead going into the final quarter.

New Mexico State scored the first four points of the fourth quarter to take a three-point lead. The score went back and forth, but a three from Tatum Boettjer at the 5:06 mark put WKU back on top. The Aggies came right back, but a three from Rowe gave WKU the lead again. An and-one on the other end gave the Aggies a one-point lead, but Telegdy made a jumper in response. With 1:57 left in the game, New Mexico State took a 68-65 lead. Both teams had empty possessions until a steal and a layup by Tia Shelling with 16 seconds left to cut the lead down to one. WKU came up with another steal on New Mexico State’s next possession. WKU was able to get off a shot but failed to connect and the Aggies came up with the rebound. New Mexico State made two free throws to go ahead three. WKU got off another shot in the final seconds but missed.

NOTABLES

• Salma Khedr led WKU in scoring with 18 points, all scored in the first half, including 16 in the second quarter. She is the first Lady Topper to score 15-plus points in a quarter since Meral Abdelgawad scored 15 against Southern Miss on Dec. 30, 2021. It was the second time this season Khedr has led the team in scoring and it was the sixth double-digit game of the season for the Sophomore.
• Torri James added 12 points. It was her sixth double-digit game of the season.
• Zsofia Telegdy scored 10 points and had six assists and four steals. The four steals were a new career high and the six assists tied her career high. It was her sixth double-digit game of the season and the 17th of her career.
• The Lady Toppers shot a season 50.9 percent (28-55) from the field and scored a season high 42 points in the paint.

QUOTABLE

“I think it came down to stops and rebounds,” said head coach Greg Collins. “They were relentless in their attack and we didn’t do a good job of stopping Morane (Dossou) from getting to the rim. We did an atrocious job on rebounding. We’ve worked on that since the beginning of the season. We’re not relentless rebounders. We’re very casual. We want the ball to bounce to us…I told the girls, I’m proud that they continue to fight and play hard. The message is: keep running the race. You don’t stop running the race in the middle. You don’t quit running the race when you’re behind. You keep running the race until the end. They’re continuing to fight and I’m proud of that, but for us to win we have to do some things and number one is rebound.”

UP NEXT

The Lady Toppers host UTEP on Saturday, Jan. 10 at noon in Diddle Arena. It will be a Kids Takeover game with Jr. Toppers taking over various roles before and during the game. Tickets for Saturday’s game are just $3.