Lady Toppers Capture 20th Win of Season, Down Marshall 77-50 Saturday Afternoon

Saturday, February 17

Bowling Green, Ky.

2 P.M. CT

Western Kentucky University

20-6 (11-2)

Marshall

8-18 (2-11)

Marshall

WKU

Lady Toppers Capture 20th Win of Season, Down Marshall 77-50 Saturday Afternoon

2/17/2018 5:08:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – In its annual Play4Kay Pink Game, WKU picked up its sixth consecutive 20-win season by taking down Marshall, 77-50, inside E.A. Diddle Arena on Saturday afternoon behind double-doubles from Ivy Brown and Raneem Elgedawy.

Saturday's win doubled as Michelle Clark-Heard's 150th win in just 195 games since taking over the program prior to the 2012-13 campaign. Only legendary former Lady Topper head coach Paul Sanderford reached the mark faster than Clark-Heard in school history, doing so one game faster in 194 outings.

Ivy Brown turned in one of her strongest all-around performances of the season with 26 points, 10 rebounds, five steals and four assists, and Elgedawy chipped in her fifth double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds. C-USA scoring leader and Player of the Year candidate Tashia Brown finished with 21 points, five rebounds and five steals in what was her 20th game with 20 or more points this season.

As a team, WKU shot 29-of-62 (46.8 percent) from the floor and held Marshall to just 37 percent (17-of-46) shooting on the afternoon.

Shayna Gore led the Thundering Herd with 22 points on 7-of-13 shooting and was joined in double figures by Talequia Hamilton, who finished with 10 points and a team-high four rebounds.

Marshall jumped out to an early 8-2 lead after capitalizing on sloppy play over the first few possessions by the Lady Toppers. Kristen Mayo and Hamilton knocked down back-to-back three-pointers for the Thundering Herd to put the Lady Toppers into an early six-point deficit.

Trailing 10-5 just over one minute later, WKU surged ahead on the strength of a 13-0 run spanning into the second quarter. The Lady Toppers held Marshall scoreless for eight minutes, and Ivy and Tashia Brown combined to score 10 of WKU's 13 points during the stretch; Terri Smith also came off the bench to knock down a triple from the top of the circle to help give the Lady Toppers an 18-10 edge.

After Marshall cut the WKU advantage to six points at the 4:38 mark of the second frame, WKU again used a double-digit unanswered run to build its largest lead of the day to that point. The Lady Toppers fired off 10 straight points, six of which came from Tashia Brown, to take a 30-14 lead; despite a late free throw by the Thundering Herd, WKU took a 30-15 advantage into the locker room.

Another long unanswered run by the Lady Toppers, this time 11 straight points, extended the lead to 29 points for WKU late in the third quarter. After Hamilton trimmed the lead to 38-20 with 7:30 on the clock, four different Lady Toppers combined to push the lead back to 49-20 over a four-minute span; Tashia Brown helped to spark the burst with a three-point play, and back-to-back layups from Ivy Brown kept the run going after a Marshall turnover.

In the fourth quarter, WKU did not allow Marshall any closer than 24 points as the lead grew to as many as 33 on Elgedawy's layup with 8:15 to play. Despite being outscored 26-25 by the Thundering Herd over the final 10 minutes, the Lady Toppers held on to claim the 77-50 victory and move atop the C-USA standings.

WKU will remain inside Diddle Arena for its final home game of the 2017-18 regular season next Friday against Charlotte at 7 p.m., with Tashia and Ivy Brown being honored postgame for Senior Night.