Lady Toppers earn first CUSA win, take down UTEP at home 68-59

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU women’s basketball (5-10, 1-3 CUSA) led wire-to-wire in a bounce back win against UTEP (9-6, 1-3 CUSA) on Saturday afternoon in E.A. Diddle Arena. The Lady Toppers defeated the Miners, 68-59.

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 third consecutive game. WKU started the game on a 10-0 run fueled by four different Lady Toppers. The two teams went back and forth for the rest of the quarter and WKU took a 19-12 lead into the second period.

The Miners cut it to four to start the second quarter with a three, but WKU responded with five straight points. UTEP went on a 7-2 run to once again cut the lead down to four with 3:26 remaining in the half, but WKU outscored UTEP 6-2 to close out the quarter to take a 32-24 lead into halftime.

UTEP scored five straight to open the second half, but a three from West put WKU back on the board. The same sequence played out again with the Miners scoring five straight and West responding with a three. UTEP went on a 7-3 run to tie the game with 2:56 left in the quarter. The Lady Toppers had one of their best responses of the season, going on an 11-0 run that stretched into the fourth quarter to go ahead by 11. After a 5-0 run by the Miners, WKU used a 7-0 run to extend the lead out to 13. UTEP wasn’t able to get back within nine the rest of the quarter.

NOTABLES

• UTEP came into Saturday’s game as Conference USA’s leading rebounding team. The Lady Toppers outrebounded the Miners, 41-39, in the game. WKU is 4-1 on the season when outrebounding their opponents.
• Salma Khedr led WKU in scoring for the second straight game with 18 points. That’s back-to-back games with 18 points for the sophomore. It was her seventh double-digit game of the season and her third with 15-plus.
• Three other Lady Toppers finished in double digits. It was the fourth time this season WKU has had four double-digit scorers. The Lady Toppers are 4-0 when doing so. Trinity Rowe added 13 points and Zsofia Telegdy added 10.
• Caleigh-Rose West had a career high 11 points with a career high three made 3-pointers. She also tied her career high with six rebounds.
• WKU improves to 106-28 under Collins when holding teams below 70 and 55-11 when holding teams below 60. On the flip side, the Lady Toppers move to 123-57 under Collins when scoring 60-or-more points.
• WKU improves to 10-4 against UTEP all-time and have won three straight in the series. Collins improves to 8-1 against the Miners as head coach.

QUOTABLE

“It was nice to get that monkey of your back with the first conference win,” said head coach Greg Collins. “We didn’t go hard in practice yesterday because we played hard on Thursday and we needed the rest. But we watched all the rebounds on film, we did our scouting report and then we walked through mostly how we were going to try and defend and making sure we knew our personnel. We did a little bit of shooting, but we mostly emphasized the rebounding. When you’re getting ready to play a team that rebounds outstandingly as UTEP and you come off a game where you give an opponent more offensive rebounds than you get in total rebounds, you don’t feel real great about that. The girls responded. We talk about it – there’s no magic. It’s just about guts, grit, pride, relentlessness.”

UP NEXT

The Lady Toppers go back on the road to take on Sam Houston on Thursday, Jan. 15, and Louisiana Tech on Saturday, Jan. 17.