Hilltoppers Carry Forward Experience Gained in Washington Loss

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — WKU Hilltopper Basketball head coach Rick Stansbury has said from day one that his team would get better from opening the season at top-25 Washington.

Now the Hilltoppers must take the lessons learned in Tuesday's 73-55 loss and carry them forward with some growth.

WKU's next chance to do just that comes tonight, as the program hosts UT Martin in its home opener at 6 p.m. CT at E.A. Diddle Arena. Very limited premium season tickets and single-game tickets remained as of Saturday morning.

"This will be the first game that we've had everybody able to go," said Stansbury, who announced to the media Friday that graduate senior forward Desean Murray has been reinstated following a suspension for a violation of team rules.

"We definitely have to get some … rhythm and some chemistry playing together, and not just them, but us as coaches figuring it out and seeing some guys play. It's a lot of newness to us. But I'll come back and say, I'll take a lot of positives from us playing out at Washington. A lot of positives I've seen, and 30 days from now I think our team will be a totally different team."

The lineup WKU sent to the court at Washington featured two freshmen, two sophomores and one junior, including just two players who competed for the Hilltoppers last season.

It also featured two point guards getting their first college experience at the position in Dalano Banton and Josh Anderson.

"I mean it was a shock to everybody, really," said redshirt junior guard/forward Jared Savage, the elder statesman of the starting lineup. "Going into Washington with that crowd, and just playing in front of all of those people, it was a shock for everybody. They've got that out of the way and now they're ready."

Not having Murray available and significant foul trouble forced the Hilltoppers to play lineups at Washington that they hadn't prepared for in depth, said both Savage and Stansbury.

One of those lineups, which featured sophomore Taveion Hollingsworth at point guard and junior college transfer Matt Horton at the five-spot, was responsible for the bulk of the production in WKU's 17-0 run to close the first half.

But even the 6-foot-11, 235-pound Horton said he realized he's no longer the big fish in a small pond.

"It was just kind of like the speed and strength of the other people in the competition," Horton said. "At my old junior college, I was the tallest person in our conference. There's more 6'11 guys out there, they're more athletic."

WKU's 17-0 burst to end the half gave the Hilltoppers a 36-27 lead at the break, but Washington erased that advantage in the first two minutes of the second half.

The teams played even until about midway through the second half, when WKU's miscues started to pile up and allowed the Huskies to pull away.

Just another of the valuable learning experiences.

"We've got to finish games," Savage said. "We've got a nine-point lead going into halftime and came out kind of relaxed. (Washington) came back and did what they were supposed to do, kind of punched us in the mouth and we never recovered from that."

Hilltoppers Carry Forward Experience Gained in Washington Loss

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Players Mentioned

Josh Anderson

Dalano Banton

Taveion Hollingsworth

Matt Horton

Jared Savage

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