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BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU will appear in the Postseason Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) for the 12th time in program history, making the short trip north to face MAC foe Miami (Ohio) on Thursday evening at 6 p.m. (CT). The Lady Toppers have reached a national postseason tournament in all seven seasons since Greg Collins has been on staff.
The Lady Toppers reached the semifinals of the 2019 C-USA Tournament before falling to top seed and eventual champion Rice last week in Frisco, Texas. WKU was one of only two C-USA teams to limit the Owls to a single-digit victory this season, falling by seven points, 64-57.
With a win on Thursday, WKU would advance to the Round of 32 and square off against the winner of the Ohio State-Morehead State matchup between March 23-26. A finalized date, location and time for that game will not be set until the two participants are confirmed.
All-C-USA First Teamer Dee Givens leads WKU into the WNIT with 17.6 points per game and is joined in double figures by Second Teamer Raneem Elgedawy (15.8) and Alexis Brewer (10.9). Elgedawy is the team's leading rebounder at 7.5 boards per contest, and Whitney Creech has dished out a team-high 103 assists compared to only 45 turnovers this year.
Miami (Ohio) is led by point guard Lauren Dickerson with 16.1 points and 157 total assists, while Savannah Kluesner averages 13.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game for the RedHawks.
GAME #33 – WKU AT MIAMI (OHIO)
WKU (18-14, 11-5 C-USA) at Miami (Ohio) (23-8, 13-5 MAC)
March 21, 2019 | 6:00 p.m. (CT)
Oxford, Ohio | John D. Millett Hall (6,400)
QUICK SHOTS
- WKU has a 16-13 all-time record in the WNIT and made a run to the 2016 quarterfinals in its most recent appearance, defeating Dayton and UT Martin at home and Saint Louis on the road in overtime before falling at eventual champion South Dakota.
- Thursday's matchup will be the first time that the Lady Toppers have begun the WNIT on the road since 2002, when WKU traveled to Champaign, Ill., and dropped a 91-84 decision against Illinois. The WNIT has traditionally featured high-scoring games for WKU, with the Lady Toppers scoring 80 or more points in 12 of their 29 games in the event.
- Whitney Creech continued her late-season surge with 16 points against Old Dominion in the C-USA Tournament. Over her last nine games, Creech is averaging 9.4 points, 2.9 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game and has scored in double figures five times over that span.
- Of its 29 games in the Postseason WNIT, WKU has played just 14 away from home. In those 14 games, WKU holds a 4-10 record, with the Lady Toppers looking to reverse that trend on Thursday evening.
- Miami (Ohio) will be WKU's third opponent from the MAC this season, but the Lady Toppers will be aiming for their first victory after falling against Central Michigan and Ball State earlier this year. WKU holds a perfect 3-0 all-time record against the RedHawks, but the two have not met since a 73-68 WKU win in Oxford on Dec. 18, 2001.
- Over her last seven games, Alexis Brewer is averaging 12.7 points per game, well above her season average of 10.9, and has scored in double figures in five of those seven outings. Brewer led the team in scoring during the C-USA Tournament, totaling 28 points across WKU's pair of games in Frisco, and was one of only two Lady Toppers to hit multiple three-pointers in the event.
- 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 1,077 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 18 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 73.2 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 32 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 199 triples this season and is chasing the record of 242 set in 2016-17. WKU's 199 makes already rank second in program history for a single season, and the .352 percentage ranks 10th in school history.
- 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 71-17 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 18 occasions, coming away with a win in all but three of those games. Over the last three seasons dating back to 2016-17, the Lady Toppers have posted a 58-6 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 93 total steals, an average of 2.9 per game, this season, a number that ranks 13th among all qualifying Division I players. Givens' 93 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 on March 2 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' .858 (139-of-162) 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 73.2 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.
- WKU's defense has pressured all but one of its 32 opponents into double-digit turnovers thus far on the season. Through 32 games, the Lady Toppers have forced an average of 17.3 turnovers per game to open the 2018-19 season.
- Through 32 games, Raneem Elgedawy and Meral Abdelgawad have combined to score 783 of WKU's 2,342 points, just over a third of the team's total. In addition to their scoring, the duo has combined for 321 rebounds, also just under a third of the team's total of 1,013.
- 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)
Live Stream: ESPN3 (Online Stream)
Live Audio: C-USA TV (Online Audio)
Live Stats: Courtesy of Miami (Ohio) Athletics
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