Jan. 6, 2001
Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky improved to 10-4 on the year and remained undefeated in the Sun Belt Conference (3-0) with a convincing 79-62 victory over defending league champion Louisiana-Lafayette (5-6, 2-1) in front of a national television audience on ESPN at home in E.A. Diddle Arena this afternoon.
"It was exciting to play the game so well and to play together as a team," said WKU Head Coach Dennis Felton. "Our players are playing well and beating people that we lost to last season. Now, we have to see how we handle success. This win puts us in the driver's seat early in the conference season, but the conference season is a marathon and there is a lot of basketball left to play. One thing this win does is put the bullseye on our backs for the other league teams."
The Hilltoppers scored the first five points in the game and never trailed in posting their fourth win in a row (and seventh in the last eight games), pushing out to a 31-16 advantage before going in at the intermission with a 34-24 lead.
A layup by Ragin' Cajun center Brett Smith to open second half play closed the gap to eight (34-26), but a free throw by Chris Marcus, followed by a three by Nashon McPherson and a jumper by Derek Robinson staked the Toppers to a 40-26 edge at 18:20 and Louisiana never again got within 10. WKU went on top by 20 (55-35) for the first time on a dunk by Marcus at 10:47 and the Toppers led by as many as 23 on two occasions -- 70-47 on a fastbreak layup by Derek Robinson at 5:20 and 72-49 on a jumper by Raimonds Jumikis at 4:49.
"I think this is one of the better places to play a college basketball game," said UL Head Coach Jessie Evans. "The Western fans help this team a lot. Western might have wanted to win a little bit more than we did today. They hustled and flew all over the floor to get loose balls."
Robinson paced Western with game highs in both 17 points (including three three-pointers) and assists (5). Marcus posted his eighth double-double in 14 games (and fourth in a row), scoring 12 points and hauling down a game-high 16 rebounds while also rejecting seven Cajun shots. And the Hilltoppers' lone senior, Nashon McPherson, equalled his season high in scoring (13) while coming up with a season-high six rebounds and equalling his career best for assists (4).
Lonnie Thomas led the Cajuns with 12 points and six boards while freshman Brad Boyd came off the bench to score 10 for UL.
Western shot season bests from the floor (52.1% -- 25-48) and from three-point range (52.6% -- 10-19).
The Hilltoppers go on the road to face one of the Sun Belt's best in South Alabama at Mobile Wednesday (Jan. 10, 7:05 p.m. CST). Louisiana-Lafayette hosts SBC foe New Mexico State Thursday (Jan. 11) at 7:05 p.m. CST.
