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BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Two of the top teams in C-USA will meet for their lone clash of the regular season as WKU, a winner in eight of its nine conference games, hosts Rice, the lone unbeaten team in C-USA, at 6 p.m. inside E.A. Diddle Arena on Thursday. The Lady Toppers will be looking to snap the Owls' 11-game winning streak that began back on Dec. 20 against Coastal Carolina.
The first 500 fans into Diddle Arena on Thursday evening will receive a special WKU Pink-Out shirt commemorating the team's annual Pink Game.
In its last time out, WKU won a 64-61 thriller at UTEP on Saturday afternoon to complete a sweep of its west Texas road trip. The Lady Toppers trailed by as many as 12 points before rallying to take the lead for good on Raneem Elgedawy's basket with only 10 seconds to play.
Thursday will double as WKU's annual Pink Game and the Lady Toppers will wear special pink jerseys as they take on the Owls. WKU has won 23 of its last 24 C-USA games played inside E.A. Diddle Arena, falling only to Southern Miss on Jan. 24 during that span.
Erica Ogwumike, the Preseason C-USA Player of the Year, averages a double-double for the Owls with 16.3 points and 11 rebounds per game. Ogwumike is also Rice's leader with 55 assists this season. Nancy Mulkey, a 6-9 forward who transferred from Oklahoma, has 49 total blocks despite missing the season's first eight games and is also averaging 12.8 points per outing.
WKU will close out the week following Thursday's tilt by hosting North Texas on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.; the Lady Toppers have won eight straight games against the Mean Green.
GAME #24 / C-USA GAME #10 – WKU VS. RV/NR RICE
WKU (14-9, 8-1 C-USA) vs. RV/NR Rice (18-3, 9-0 C-USA)
February 7, 2019 | 6:00 p.m. (CT)
Bowling Green, Ky. | E.A. Diddle Arena (7,523)
QUICK SHOTS
- WKU moved one step closer to the 1,000-win plateau with its victory at UTEP on Feb. 2. The Lady Toppers now sit just two wins shy of becoming the 10th program in Division I history to reach that mark and could reach the 1,000-win mark as early as Saturday afternoon against North Texas.
- Saturday's win at UTEP was WKU's largest comeback victory since a 13-point comeback against Charlotte on Feb. 23, 2017. The Lady Toppers trailed by as many as 12 points with 3:45 remaining in the second quarter and rallied from a halftime deficit for the first time this season.
- With its 12-point comeback victory at UTEP on Feb. 2, WKU recorded its 19th double-digit comeback since 2012-13 when Greg Collins joined the staff. Of those 19 comebacks, 12 have come either on the road or in neutral-site games, and 12 have also come against conference opponents. The comeback at UTEP was WKU's first win when trailing by double digits since overcoming a 13-point deficit against Charlotte on Feb. 23, 2017.
- WKU has a pair of players averaging 20 points per game in C-USA play in Dee Givens (20.2) and Raneem Elgedawy (20.0). The duo trails only Louisiana Tech's Kierra Anthony (21.1) in points per game during conference play.
- Entering Thursday's game, Dee Givens stands alone as the only Division I basketball player, male or female, to be shooting 45 percent from the field, 45 percent from three-point range and 85 percent from the free throw line. With 700 combined men's and women's teams and approximately 15 players on each roster, Givens is the only player out of approximately 10,000 nationwide to have these percentages.
- Among the 23 first-time Division I head coaches this season, Greg Collins is currently second with his 14 victories, trailing only Minnesota's Lindsay Whalen with 15 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 76.5 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 UTEP on Feb. 2, Raneem Elgedawy (27) and Dee Givens (26) paired to score 53 of WKU's 64 points against the Miners. That marked the second time this season that the duo has combined to score 50 or more points after the two previously scored 59 combined points at FIU on Jan. 17.
- Through 23 games, both the single-season makes and percentage record in school history are potentially in sight for the Lady Toppers. WKU has knocked down 157 triples this season and is chasing the record of 242 set in 2016-17, while the Lady Toppers are shooting 36.3 percent (157-of-432) from beyond the arc, a mark that would rank eighth in program history.
- Since joining C-USA prior to the 2014-15 campaign, WKU has earned 30 road victories in conference play. That number tops victory totals for all other C-USA programs on their own home courts over the same span.
- Over its first five seasons as a member of Conference USA, WKU owns a 67-12 mark against the rest of the league since joining and posted a 12-4 record last season.
- This season, WKU's defense has limited its opponents to fewer than 70 points on 12 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 54-4 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 69 total steals, an average of 3.0 per game, this season, a number that ranks 12th among all qualifying Division I players. Givens' 69 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' .867 (91-of-105) percentage ranks fifth in the nation among all Division I players who have attempted at least 100 free throws this season.
- Under Greg Collins, WKU has featured a revamped, fast-paced offensive attack this season and is averaging 76.5 points per game through 23 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 18.2 giveaways per game. The Lady Toppers have forced double-digit turnovers in 75 straight games dating back to a Jan. 7, 2017, contest at Old Dominion.
- Through 23 games, Raneem Elgedawy and Meral Abdelgawad have combined to score 619 of WKU's 1,759 points, just over a third of the team's total. In addition to their scoring, the duo has combined for 248 rebounds, also just under a third of the team's total of 752.
- 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 82-16 record inside the friendly confines of its home arena since Greg Collins has been with the program in 2012-13. The Lady Toppers started a new winning streak in their 81-76 win over Louisiana Tech on Jan. 26.
- 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: C-USA TV (Online Stream)
Live Audio: C-USA TV (Online Audio)
Live Stats: Courtesy of WKU Athletics
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