Clark-Heard Postgame Interview | Brown and Bopp Postgame Interview
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Tashia Brown and Ivy Brown each recorded double-doubles and Raneem Elgedawy added 15 points as WKU's 32-point second quarter carried the Lady Toppers past Florida Atlantic, 82-63, on Saturday afternoon inside E.A. Diddle Arena.
Tashia Brown scored a game-high 25 points and added 11 rebounds for her second double-double of the season, and Ivy Brown fell just shy of a triple-double with 14 points, a season-best 16 rebounds and a career-high seven steals for WKU (17-5, 8-1 C-USA). WKU also maintained its half-game lead atop the C-USA leaderboard with the victory.
Elgedawy nearly totaled her fifth double-double of the year with 15 points and eight rebounds and finished shooting 7-of-12 from the field. As a team, the Lady Toppers were 33-of-79 (41.8 percent) from the floor, a mark that included 14-of-20 shooting (70 percent) in the second quarter alone, the second-highest scoring quarter for WKU since moving to the quarter system in 2015-16.
Danneal Ford tallied a team-best 22 points for Florida Atlantic (10-9, 4-4 C-USA) but also had eight turnovers. DaChe Williams (12) and Ra'Kyra Gabriel (10) joined her in double figures, and Melinda Myers added eight points and 10 rebounds for the Owls.
After a pair of early ties, Florida Atlantic jumped ahead with five unanswered points, three of which were scored by Ford; she also capped the quick run with a three-point play at the 7:10 mark to give the Owls an early 9-4 lead.
WKU briefly took a one-point lead on Tashia Brown's layup three minutes later, but the Owls again responded with an 8-2 run to go back up by five points with four baskets from four different players.
Faced with that five-point deficit, WKU scored nine of the final 12 points of the first quarter, including a late three-pointer by Dee Givens, to carry a 21-20 lead after the first 10 minutes.
After Florida Atlantic's Williams knocked down a triple at the 6:54 mark of the second quarter to cut WKU's lead to just two points, the Lady Toppers put together their longest unanswered run of the season, scoring 23 straight points to build their largest lead of the night to that point. A pair of three-pointers from Sidnee Bopp helped to key the run, and Ivy Brown's layup off a feed from Whitney Creech put the Lady Toppers ahead, 50-25, with just over 60 seconds remaining in the half.
Florida Atlantic trimmed the lead back to 21 points on Ford's buzzer-beating three-pointer heading into the locker room as WKU took a 53-32 lead into the break.
In the third quarter, the Lady Toppers never allowed the Owls closer than 21 points as the two sides battled nearly evenly with WKU holding only a 16-14 advantage during the 10-minute frame.
WKU's lead grew to as many as 29 points on three separate occasions over the final 10 minutes of play before Florida Atlantic scored 11 of the game's final 12 points to reach the final 82-63 scoreline.
Western Kentucky University Athletics
- Champions Climb Here
- WKU Athletics
- Athletic Director
- Academic Services
- Annual Report
- Athletic Communications
- Athletic Hall of Fame
- Athletic Training
- Big Red
- CLIMB Program - NIL
- Compliance
- Facilities
- Financial Reports
- For Students
- Student Employment
- Forms/Requests
- Book Big Red
- Donation Requests
- Site Feedback
- For Fans
- Hilltopper Highlights
- Gameday Promotions
- Alumni Tailgates
- Big Red's Rascals
- Basketball Gameday
- Football Gameday
- Mobile Tickets
- Travel Center
- Tickets
- Give
