Lady Toppers Fall on the Road
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — WKU women’s basketball’s nine-game winning streak was snapped on Thursday night in Birmingham with an 86-70 loss to UAB. The Lady Toppers move to 14-5 on the season and 7-1 in Conference USA play.
WKU had four in double digit points. Meral Abdelgawad led all scorers with 28 points for her 10th 20-point game of the season to go along with five rebounds. Alexis Mead poured in 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field, including 3-of-3 from the perimeter. Mya Meredith continued her double-digit scoring streak with 13 points. She and Mead tied for the team’s lead on the boards, pulling down six rebounds each. Macey Blevins finished with 11 points.
The Lady Toppers had their fewest turnovers of the season with 13 on the night. WKU shot 36.5 percent (23-63) from the field, which was its lowest percentage since shooting 27.3 percent against UT Martin.
The Blazers scored on their first possession of the game for the first lead of the game. Macey Blevins put WKU on the board first with a three from the wing to put the Lady Toppers ahead at the 8:53 mark. Mya Meredith followed with a bucket to cushion the lead to 5-2. WKU went cold and missed its next five shots. At the 5:43 mark UAB made a layup to go ahead 9-8. The Lady Toppers responded with an 8-0 run to push ahead, 16-9. From there, UAB outscored WKU 7-2 to cut it to 18-16 at the end of the first.
UAB opened the second quarter with back-to-back threes to spark an 8-0 run to take a 24-18 lead. Blevins stopped the run with her second three of the game. The Blazers once again went on a run, this time 7-0. The Lady Toppers cut the lead to five after a pair of layups from Abdelgawad and Mead and free throw from Blevins. UAB outscored WKU 9-5 from that point to take a 40-31 lead into halftime.
The Blazers opened the second half with a three, but Abdelgawad responded with back-to-back and-one plays to cut the score to six. At the 6:17 mark, WKU used an 11-3 run to get within four of the Blazers, but UAB answered with an 8-0 run and took a 64-52 lead into the final quarter.
Mead scored the first four points of the fourth quarter for WKU. Overall, the Blazers outscored WKU 22-18 in the final quarter.
The Lady Toppers will stay on the road to take on Middle Tennessee on Saturday at 3 p.m. in Murfreesboro.
