WKU Game Notes (PDF) | Thursday Live Stream (ESPN+) | Thursday Live Audio | Live Stats
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU ended the regular season on a three-game winning streak to claim a first-round bye and earn the No. 4 seed in the 2019 C-USA Championships, with the Lady Toppers set to begin their quest for a third straight tournament title on Thursday morning at 11:30 a.m. against the winner of Old Dominion and Florida Atlantic inside The Ford Center at The Star in Frisco.
The Lady Toppers have now earned a first-round bye in all five of their seasons as a member of C-USA and have matched or outperformed preseason expectations in the last three years, finishing in a tie for third place this season after being picked fourth in the coaches' poll.
Should WKU claim the 2019 championship, the Lady Toppers would be one of only two teams in league history to earn three consecutive tournament titles, matching the mark set by former member Tulane from 1999-2001.
All-C-USA First Team selection Dee Givens leads WKU into the tournament at 18 points per game, followed closely by Second Team pick Raneem Elgedawy (16 per game). Elgedawy also leads the team with 7.4 rebounds per game, while Whitney Creech has dished out a team-best 91 assists to just 38 turnovers while averaging 9.3 points per game over her last seven contests.
A tournament victory would be the 14th in school history and would assure the Lady Toppers of their 21st trip to the NCAA Tournament and fifth since Greg Collins has been on staff.
GAME #31 – WKU VS. OLD DOMINION OR FLORIDA ATLANTIC
WKU (17-13, 11-5 C-USA) vs. Old Dominion (20-9, 10-6 C-USA) OR Florida Atlantic (5-24, 2-14 C-USA)
March 14, 2019 | 11:30 a.m. (CT)
Frisco, Texas | The Ford Center at The Star (12,000)
GAME #32 – WKU VS. NO. 24/RV RICE OR SOUTHERN MISS OR NORTH TEXAS
WKU (17-13, 11-5 C-USA) vs. No. 24/RV Rice (25-3, 16-0 C-USA) OR Southern Miss (17-12, 9-7 C-USA) OR North Texas (14-14, 7-9 C-USA)
March 15, 2019 | 5:30 p.m. (CT)
Frisco, Texas | The Ford Center at The Star (12,000)
GAME #33 – WKU VS. TBD
WKU (17-13, 11-5 C-USA) vs. TBD
March 16, 2019 | 4:30 p.m. (CT)
Frisco, Texas | The Ford Center at The Star (12,000)
QUICK SHOTS
- WKU has a 9-1 all-time record in the C-USA Tournament, with its lone loss coming in the 2016 Quarterfinals against Marshall. The Lady Toppers have won each of their last six tournament games by double digits, including a 72-57 win over UAB in last year's title game.
- Whitney Creech continued her late-season surge with 15 points against Middle Tennessee in the regular season finale. Over her last seven games, Creech is averaging 9.3 points and has hit double digits four times after doing that just once in the first 23 games of the year.
- WKU enters the 2019 C-USA Tournament on a three-game winning streak and earned the No. 4 seed and a first-round bye. Though the fourth seed is the Lady Toppers' lowest since joining the league, WKU has secured a first-round bye in all five seasons in C-USA.
- WKU is set to face either Old Dominion or Florida Atlantic in the quarterfinals on Thursday morning, and will enter the matchup with undefeated records against both sides since joining the league. The Lady Toppers own a 9-0 record against the Monarchs since 2014-15 and have beaten the Owls six times without a loss over that same span.
- Should the Lady Toppers win their quarterfinal matchup, top-seeded Rice would likely await in Friday's semifinals. WKU dropped a 68-46 decision against the Owls in Bowling Green on Feb. 7 in the lone meeting this season as Rice became only the third team in C-USA history to finish conference play undefeated. WKU has faced the No. 1 seed only one time in the C-USA Tournament, defeating UAB, 72-57, in last year's title game.
- Since Greg Collins has been on staff, the Lady Toppers have won four conference tournament titles in six opportunities and have posted a 13-2 record in conference postseason play. WKU claimed the title in its final year as a member of the Sun Belt in 2013-14 and has won three of its four chances at the C-USA title.
- With her 23-point performance at Marshall on Feb. 23, Dee Givens became the 40th member of Lady Topper Basketball's 1,000-point club and now has 1,055 points for her career. Givens became the seventh player to join the club since Greg Collins has been on staff in 2012-13, joining Chastity Gooch, Alexis Govan, Kendall Noble, Micah Jones, Tashia Brown and Ivy Brown.
- WKU's 69-66 overtime win at Marshall on Feb. 23 was its first in extra time since defeating Kent State, 79-73, in overtime on Nov. 26, 2016. The overtime win was also WKU's first in a true road game since its WNIT victory at Saint Louis on March 25, 2016, that ended on Sidnee Bopp's left corner buzzer-beater.
- 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.
- Among the 23 first-time Division I head coaches this season, Greg Collins is currently third with his 17 victories, trailing only Minnesota's Lindsay Whalen and Northern Colorado's Jenny Huth. 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 73.7 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 13 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 36-4 when shooting 50 percent or better.
- Dee Givens and Raneem Elgedawy have twice combined for more than 50 points this season, forming a strong scoring duo for the Lady Toppers. At FIU, the pair combined for 59 points as both had career-high performances, and the two also combined for 53 points at UTEP as the Lady Topper engineering a 12-point come-from-behind victory over the Miners.
- Through 30 games, the Lady Toppers are on pace to finish second in school history for three-pointers made in a single season. WKU has knocked down 189 triples this season and is chasing the record of 242 set in 2016-17. WKU's 189 makes already rank fourth in program history for a single season and would jump to second with four more triples.
- WKU has captured 32 road victories in C-USA play since joining the conference in 2014-15 and has unquestionably been one of the toughest teams to face both at home and away. WKU's 32 road wins are more than all but one C-USA school (Middle Tennessee) have won on their own home courts against other C-USA opponents over the last five years.
- Over its first five seasons as a member of Conference USA, WKU owns a 70-16 mark against the rest of the league since joining and posted an 11-5 record this season.
- This season, WKU's defense has limited its opponents to fewer than 70 points on 16 occasions, coming away with a win in all but two of those games. Over the last three seasons dating back to 2016-17, the Lady Toppers have posted a 57-5 record when holding their opponents under 70 points, including a perfect 34-0 mark when limiting them to fewer than 60 points.
- Dee Givens has 91 total steals, an average of 3.0 per game, this season, a number that ranks 12th among all qualifying Division I players. Givens' 91 steals is also the top mark among all C-USA players. Givens had her second game of the season with eight steals at North Texas last Saturday evening and is one of only seven Division I players (and the only C-USA player) this season with multiple games of eight or more steals.
- 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' .859 (134-of-156) percentage ranks third in single-season history for the Lady Toppers, trailing only Natalie Powers (.874) and Laurie Townsend (.869).
- Under Greg Collins, WKU has featured a revamped, fast-paced offensive attack this season and is averaging 73.7 points per game through 30 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.
- Dating back to a Jan. 7, 2017, victory at Old Dominion, WKU has forced at least 10 turnovers in 82 consecutive games. This season, the Lady Toppers have forced an average of 17.6 turnovers per game by their opponents and have recorded 20 or more turnovers forced on 10 different occasions, including five times during C-USA play.
- Through 30 games, Raneem Elgedawy and Meral Abdelgawad have combined to score 748 of WKU's 2,211 points, just over a third of the team's total. In addition to their scoring, the duo has combined for 298 rebounds, also just under a third of the team's total of 937.
- 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 and met or exceeded their preseason expectations for the third straight season. In 2016-17, WKU won the regular season title after being picked first, and the Lady Toppers finished second after being picked second last season. This year, the Lady Toppers finished in a tie for third place.
- WKU put together an 9-6 record inside Diddle Arena this season and has posted an 83-18 record inside the friendly confines of its home arena since Greg Collins has been with the program in 2012-13.
- 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)
Thursday Live Stream: ESPN+ (Online Stream)
Thursday Live Audio: C-USA TV (Online Audio)
Live Stats: Courtesy of Conference USA
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