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BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Coming off its first home C-USA loss in nearly three calendar years, WKU will look to return to its winning ways on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. as the Lady Toppers welcome Louisiana Tech to E.A. Diddle Arena. Saturday's meeting will be the 46th in the storied rivalry between the two former Sun Belt sides that dates back to the 1983-84 campaign.
WKU fell against Southern Miss, 69-56, on Thursday night despite a strong game from reigning C-USA Player of the Week Raneem Elgedawy, who finished just shy of a double-double with 20 points and nine rebounds. Dee Givens also added 13 points for the Lady Toppers.
Thursday night's setback snapped WKU's program-record 22-game winning streak in home conference games, but the Lady Toppers have still posted a 36-3 record against C-USA foes inside Diddle since joining the league in 2014-15.
Kierra Anthony is the lone player in double figures for the Lady Techsters, but Anthony is also the leading scorer in C-USA and ranks fifth in the nation at 23.7 points per game. Anthony has five games this season with at least 30 points, and her 50-point performance against Houston on Nov. 14 is the third-most points scored by a Division I player in a game this season.
Following Saturday's tilt, WKU will return to the road for the west Texas swing next week, visiting UTSA (Thursday at 11 a.m.) and UTEP (2 p.m. CT) on the trip.
GAME #21 / C-USA GAME #7 – WKU VS. LOUISIANA TECH
WKU (11-9, 5-1 C-USA) vs. Louisiana Tech (10-10, 2-5 C-USA)
January 26, 2019 | 2:00 p.m. (CT)
Bowling Green, Ky. | E.A. Diddle Arena (7,523)
QUICK SHOTS
- WKU had its 22-game home C-USA winning streak snapped in Thursday's setback against Southern Miss. The Lady Toppers still hold a 36-3 in conference games inside E.A. Diddle Arena since 2014-15.
- Louisiana Tech is one of five C-USA schools that do not have a victory against the Lady Toppers since they joined the conference prior to the 2014-15 season. WKU has six straight wins over the Lady Techsters, five of which have come in conference play in the last four seasons.
- Saturday's game features two teams with storied histories of success. WKU and Louisiana Tech have combined for 14 Final Four appearances (three by the Lady Toppers) and seven NCAA national championship game appearances. The Lady Toppers reached the title game in 1992, while the Lady Techsters won the national championship in 1982 and 1988.
- Raneem Elgedawy was named the C-USA Player of the Week for the first time and also earned a spot in the NCAA Weekly Starting Five after averaging 26.5 points and 12.5 rebounds last week. Elgedawy is just the fourth Lady Topper ever to earn a Weekly Starting Five nod, joining Chastity Gooch, Kendall Noble and Tashia Brown.
- Raneem Elgedawy and Meral Abdelgawad claimed a sweep of the C-USA weekly awards on Monday, with Elgedawy winning her first Player of the Week honor and Abdelgawad being named Co-Freshman of the Week. Elgedawy and Abdelgawad's sweep marks the first time that Lady Toppers have won both awards in the same week since Tashia Brown and Elgedawy accomplished the feat on Dec. 18, 2017.
- Among the 23 first-time Division I head coaches this season, Greg Collins is currently tied for second with his 11 victories, trailing only Minnesota's Lindsay Whalen with 13 wins. More impressively, no other team under a first-time head coach is averaging more points per game than the Lady Toppers, who are scoring at a 76.7 per game clip.
- WKU has enjoyed one of its best shooting seasons in recent memory and has hit the 50 percent mark from the floor in 11 games already this season. The Lady Toppers shot 50 percent or better in six straight games from Dec. 29 through Jan. 19, its longest such streak since at least the 1987-88 campaign. Since Greg Collins has been on The Hill in 2012-13, WKU is 35-3 when shooting 50 percent or better.
- At FIU on Jan. 17, Dee Givens (31) and Raneem Elgedawy (28) both scored career-highs in points and paired to score 59 of WKU's 94 points against the Panthers. Givens and Elgedawy's 59 combined points were the most by any Lady Topper duo in a single game since Crystal Kelly (38) and current assistant coach Tiffany Porter-Talbert (21) also had 59 against Charlotte on Nov. 22, 2005.
- Through 20 games, both the single-season makes and percentage record in school history are potentially in sight for the Lady Toppers. WKU has knocked down 139 triples this season and is chasing the record of 242 set in 2016-17, while the Lady Toppers are shooting 37.4 percent (139-of-372) from beyond the arc, a mark that would rank fifth in program history.
- Since joining C-USA prior to the 2014-15 campaign, WKU has earned 28 road victories in conference play. That number tops victory totals for all but one C-USA program (Middle Tennessee, 29) on their own home courts over the same span.
- Sherry Porter has enjoyed a strong sophomore season, averaging 6.5 points per game and starting all but seven games. However, her star has shined even brighter since conference play began, including her career-best 20-point performance against Marshall. In C-USA play, Porter is averaging 7.7 points per game and owns the second-best assist-turnover ratio in the conference, with 18 assists to only six giveaways.
- Over its first five seasons as a member of Conference USA, WKU owns a 64-11 mark against the rest of the league since joining and posted a 12-4 record last season.
- Legendary Lady Topper Basketball head coach Paul Sanderford was named one of 12 finalists for the 2019 Women's Basketball Hall of Fame on Jan. 10. Sanderford won 365 games and reached three Final Fours in 15 seasons at the helm of the Lady Toppers.
- This season, WKU's defense has limited its opponents to fewer than 70 points on 10 occasions, coming away with a win in all but one of those games. Over the last three seasons dating back to 2016-17, the Lady Toppers have posted a 52-4 record when holding their opponents under 70 points, including a perfect 33-0 mark when limiting them to fewer than 60 points.
- Dee Givens has 59 total steals, an average of 3.0 per game, this season, a number that ranks 26th among all qualifying Division I players. Givens' 59 steals is also the top mark among all C-USA players. Givens enjoyed a breakout defensive game with eight steals against Marshall, tied for the most by a C-USA player this season and the most by a Lady Topper since Kendall Noble's school-record 10 at North Texas on Feb. 5, 2015.
- Despite having her streak of 38 consecutive made free throws snapped against Ball State, Dee Givens has enjoyed a strong season from the charity stripe. Givens' .875 (77-of-88) percentage ranks sixth in the nation among all Division I players who have attempted at least 80 free throws this season.
- WKU moved one step closer to the 1,000-win plateau with its victory at Florida Atlantic on Jan. 19. The Lady Toppers now sit just five wins shy of becoming the 10th program in Division I history to reach that mark.
- Under Greg Collins, WKU has featured a revamped, fast-paced offensive attack this season and is averaging 76.7 points per game through 20 contests. Should WKU average at least 75 points per game this season, the Lady Toppers will have hit that mark in four of the five most recent seasons after previously not doing so since 2004-05.
- WKU has been efficient at forcing turnovers this season, forcing its opponents into an average of 17.8 giveaways per game. The Lady Toppers have forced double-digit turnovers in 72 straight games dating back to a Jan. 7, 2017, contest at Old Dominion.
- Through 20 games, Raneem Elgedawy and Meral Abdelgawad have combined to score 528 of WKU's 1,533 points, just over a third of the team's total. In addition to their scoring, the duo has combined for 215 rebounds, also just under a third of the team's total of 661.
- Despite its rally falling just short at Oklahoma on Nov. 10, WKU scored its most points in a single quarter since moving to the system in 2015-16, netting 35 points in the fourth frame against the Sooners. The 35 points were WKU's most since setting the previous record of 33 points in the fourth quarter against Dayton in the WNIT on March 17, 2016.
- The Lady Toppers were picked fourth in the preseason C-USA coaches' poll, but have met or exceeded their expectations in each of the last two years. In 2016-17, WKU won the tournament title after being picked first, and repeated as champions in 2017-18 after a second-place pick.
- WKU put together an 11-1 record inside Diddle Arena last season and has posted an 81-16 record inside the friendly confines of its home arena since Greg Collins has been with the program in 2012-13. The Lady Toppers had their four-game winning streak snapped against Southern Miss on Jan. 24.
- WKU enters the 2018-19 season having had only five international letterwinners in program history, including sophomore Raneem Elgedawy. This year, the Lady Toppers will sport three international student-athletes on the roster, with Arame Niang and Meral Abdelgawad joining Elgedawy on The Hill.
- In its four seasons as a C-USA member, WKU has claimed a pair of regular season titles and has won the conference tournament three times, including back-to-back wins in both 2017 and 2018. WKU is only the second school in C-USA history to claim back-to-back tournament titles as a league member, joining former member Tulane, who won three straight from 1999-2001.
- In each of Greg Collins' six previous years on WKU's bench, the Lady Toppers have had 20 or more victories, with the team looking to extend that streak in 2018-19. WKU's current streak of six 20-win seasons is its second-longest in program history, trailing only seven straight from 1982-83 to 1988-89 during the Paul Sanderford era. In WKU's modern era (since 1973-74), five of the 10 head coaches have captured 20-win seasons in their debut years on The Hill, most recently with Michelle Clark-Heard's 22 wins in 2012-13.
BROADCAST
Listen: 102.7FM, 1450AM in Bowling Green (Brett Williams, pxp; John Butler, analysis)
Live Stream: ESPN3 (Online Stream), WKU PBS (Jeff Younglove, pxp; Paul Sanderford, analysis)
Live Audio: C-USA TV (Online Audio)
Live Stats: Courtesy of WKU Athletics
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