WKU Game Notes (PDF) | Live Stream (ESPN+) | Live Audio | Live Stats
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – For the 74th time in school history, Lady Topper Basketball will square off against archrival Middle Tennessee in what will be the regular season finale for both sides on Thursday evening at 6 p.m. inside E.A. Diddle Arena. WKU will also honor its three seniors; Sidnee Bopp, Kayla Smith and Jae'Lisa Allen; as part of its Senior Night festivities in a postgame ceremony.
WKU earned a 71-66 win that came down to the wire in its last time out at North Texas last Saturday, rallying from a five-point deficit to open the fourth quarter. Dee Givens spearheaded the result for WKU with a game-high 24 points, six rebounds and a career-best eight steals.
The Lady Toppers will be looking to split the season series with the Blue Raiders after dropping an 81-69 decision in Murfreesboro, Tenn., on Feb. 14. Middle Tennessee leads the all-time rivalry series by a 42-31 margin, but WKU has won six of the eight most recent meetings.
A'Queen Hayes (15.5) and Alex Johnson (15.2) lead Middle Tennessee in scoring and are joined in double figures by Taylor Sutton (10.6). Hayes is also the team's leading rebounder at 7.5 per game and has dished out a season-best 86 assists across 28 games for the Blue Raiders, who have limited opponents to just 56.1 points per game.
With the regular season complete, WKU will find out its seeding for next week's C-USA Tournament following the conclusion of all conference games late Thursday evening.
GAME #30 / C-USA GAME #16 – WKU VS. MIDDLE TENNESSEE
WKU (16-13, 10-5 C-USA) vs. Middle Tennessee (20-8, 11-4 C-USA)
March 7, 2019 | 6:00 p.m. (CT)
Bowling Green, Ky. | E.A. Diddle Arena (7,523)
QUICK SHOTS
- Sidnee Bopp and Kayla Smith, the four-year seniors who will be honored postgame on Thursday evening, have been a part of 94 victories, two C-USA Tournament title teams and a C-USA regular season championship squad since arriving on The Hill in 2015-16.
- Whitney Creech broke out with a season-best 16 points at North Texas last Saturday and continued her late-season surge. Over her last six games, Creech is averaging 8.3 points and has hit double digits three times after doing that just once in the first 23 games of the year.
- In WKU's last two games at Marshall and North Texas, the contests have combined for 28 lead changes and 18 ties as the Lady Toppers have prevailed in thrilling fashion in both. WKU also rallied from a halftime deficit in both games after previously only doing so once this season.
- Since joining C-USA prior to the 2014-15 season, WKU has won six of its eight matchups in the rivalry against Middle Tennessee and had won five straight prior to its setback earlier this year. Prior to this recent run of success, the Lady Toppers had dropped 12 straight games against the Blue Raiders over a five-year span, the longest winning streak by either side in the longtime series.
- With Thursday marking the final night of the regular season in C-USA, WKU controls its own destiny and would lock up the No. 4 seed in next week's C-USA Tournament with a win over the Blue Raiders. A loss by Southern Miss at Charlotte would also assure WKU of a first-round bye, and wins by both Marshall and Old Dominion would guarantee that WKU could finish no lower than No. 4.
- 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 1,039 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 16 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 73.9 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 12 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 35-4 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 29 games, the single-season three-point makes record in school history is potentially in sight for the Lady Toppers. WKU has knocked down 184 triples this season and is chasing the record of 242 set in 2016-17. WKU's 184 makes already rank fifth in program history for a single season and would jump to fourth with five 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 69-16 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 15 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 56-5 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 89 total steals, an average of 3.1 per game, this season, a number that ranks 12th among all qualifying Division I players. Givens' 89 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' .863 (132-of-153) 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 73.9 points per game through 29 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 81 consecutive games. This season, the Lady Toppers have forced an average of 17.7 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 29 games, Raneem Elgedawy and Meral Abdelgawad have combined to score 724 of WKU's 2,144 points, just over a third of the team's total. In addition to their scoring, the duo has combined for 287 rebounds, also just under a third of the team's total of 909.
- 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 82-18 record inside the friendly confines of its home arena since Greg Collins has been with the program in 2012-13. The Lady Toppers will have one more home game this season when they host Middle Tennessee on March 7.
- 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: ESPN+ (Online Stream) (Jeff Younglove, pxp; Paul Sanderford, analysis)
Live Audio: C-USA TV (Online Audio)
Live Stats: Courtesy of WKU Athletics
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
