Lady Tops Win Ninth Straight, Defeat Marshall 79-65
Credit – WKU Athletics
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — The WKU women’s basketball team keeps rolling as it won its ninth straight game on Thursday night against Marshall in E.A. Diddle Arena. The Lady Toppers outdid the Thundering Herd, 79-65, to improve to 11-0 in Diddle this season and improve their home win streak to 13.
WKU moves to 19-6 on the season and 11-3 in Conference USA play. The Lady Toppers now own the longest win streak in the league and have a third place standing.
“First off, Marshall is a good team,” said head coach Greg Collins. “They’re a tough guard because of their style of play and the type of matchups we have. The key was, we’re just really focused in on what we’re doing. We’re doing a better job of making sure we’re executing the game plan. Defensively, we had some breakdowns but one we changed defenses after the first media timeout, from that point forward we were pretty solid. When we play good solid, team defense that changes the ballgame for us.”
Whitney Creech led the Lady Toppers with 19 points on the night along with four assists. Raneem Elgedawy picked up her 13th double-double of the season with 17 points and 12 rebounds. The junior’s 24 career double-doubles is tied for the ninth most in WKU history.
Meral Abdelgawad and Dee Givens joined the two in double figures. Abdelgawad finished with 11 points, four rebounds and three assists. Givens finished with 10 points, extending her streak of double-digit scoring to eight games.
Ten different Lady Toppers saw action on Thursday night with nine getting in the scoring column. The bench contributed 14 points on the night.
Marshall struck early, making 4-of-6 3-pointers in the first quarter. The Thundering Herd scored the first points of the game on a three, but Abdelgawad matched with a three of her own. The Herd went on a 6-0 from there, but WKU scored four-straight following the run. Elgedawy took over for the Lady Toppers, scoring seven points in the last half of the quarter and the Lady Toppers took a 24-20 lead into the second after being down by as much as six.
The Herd scored first in the second quarter but WKU went on an 8-0 sparked by an Abdelgawad three and capped with an Alexis Brewer three and a Creech bucket sandwiched in between to go up by double digits for the first time. Both teams traded baskets for the next few minutes, but the Lady Toppers used a 10-0 run to end the half ahead 45-28.
WKU was outscored 20-14 in the third quarter after Marshall shot 7-of-13 from the floor in the frame. No Lady Topper had more than four points in the period, but Elgedawy did pull down seven rebounds, notching her double-double.
With the Herd within 11 at the end of the third, Creech came out and knocked down a three. She scored again on WKU’s next possession and would score seven in the period. De’Myla Brown connected on a midrange jumper with 3:58 left in the game to give the Lady Toppers a 75-56 lead. Marshall then went on a 9-0 run to cut the game to 10 points, but WKU scored the last four points of the game to win 79-65.
WKU won the battle on the boards, outrebounding Marshall 38-22. The Lady Toppers improve to 15-0 when outdoing their opponents in rebounds. WKU also improved to 12-0 this season when shooting better from the field, shooting 50 percent from the floor tonight compared to the Herd’s 48.9 percent.
The Lady Toppers have a short turnaround with Saturday’s matchup at Florida Atlantic. WKU will take on the Owls at 1 PM (CT) in Boca Raton, Florida.
