WKU Survives Late Rally at Charlotte

Saturday, January 18

Charlotte, N.C.

3 PM

Western Kentucky University

-116,33 CUSA

Charlotte

-115,23 CUSA

WKU

Charlotte

Photo by: Steve Roberts, WKU Athletics

1/18/2020 6:48:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The WKU women's basketball team got back in the win column on Saturday evening in Charlotte with a 60-56 win against the 49ers.

With the win, the Lady Toppers improve to 11-6 on the season and 3-3 in Conference USA play. WKU has been through the gauntlet in the first six games of conference play, taking on six of the top seven teams in the C-USA preseason coaches poll with WKU being the missing seventh team. In the last four games, the Lady Toppers have faced three of the top four C-USA teams in the RPI rankings in Old Dominion (No. 37), Middle Tennessee (No. 47) and Charlotte (No. 48) and went 3-1 in that stretch.

The Lady Toppers were led by Raneem Elgedawy and Meral Abdelgawad with each scoring 14 points in the game. Elgedawy was one rebound short of a double-double with nine boards. It was the most Abdelgawad has scored since scoring 15 at Mercer in the second game of the season. She also came up with four offensive rebounds and two steals.

Givens finished with seven points, nine rebounds, four steals and one assist. Whitney Creech added eight points, four assists and three rebounds. Alexis Brewer had six points and four rebounds.

Abdelgawad was the first to score in the game, connecting on a 3-pointer from the wing to give WKU an early lead. The Lady Toppers went ahead 5-2 on a layup from Elgedawy. Charlotte responded by making back-to-back threes to take their first lead. Both teams traded baskets, but WKU scored two-straight buckets to go ahead by one. Charlotte got the edge heading to the second after outscoring WKU 5-3 from that point on.

Brewer scored four-straight points to open the second quarter to give WKU a 18-15 lead. There were eight lead changes through the rest of the quarter, but the Lady Toppers went to halftime with a two-point lead after a layup and free throw from Givens.

The Lady Toppers were able to build on that lead in the third quarter, outscoring the 49ers 14-8 in the frame. A little after the midway point of the quarter, Creech scored four-straight points but Charlotte responded by scoring the next four points. The next points came from Brewer who took her defender one-on-one and beat her for a contested layup. That basket would spark a 10-0 run that would continue into the fourth quarter. Abdelgawad capped the third quarter by beating the buzzer with a layup as time expired.

Charlotte tried to make a comeback in the fourth quarter, getting to within three points. At the 2:30 mark, the 49ers went on a 6-0 run to bring it to 57-54. Givens answered with a layup on the other end to push it back to five. Charlotte came right back down with a layup of their own. After a WKU turnover on the next play, Charlotte had the ball with 11 seconds left. The 49ers missed a layup but got the offensive rebound but the rebounder was called with a traveling violation to give the ball back to WKU. Sherry Porter split a pair of free throws to ice the win for the Lady Toppers.

WKU outrebounded Charlotte, 40-33, and improved to 9-0 on the season when outrebounding its opponents. The Lady Toppers also outscored Charlotte in all but one category, which includes points off of turnovers (17-10), points in the paint (36-32), second chance points (12-10) and fast break points (9-8).

With her seven points, Givens moved into 20th place on WKU's all-time scoring list with 1,392 career points. Elgedawy moved up to 34th with 1,117 career points.

The Lady Toppers will be back in action on Saturday, Jan. 25 at Marshall for the final of three-straight road games. After facing the Thundering Herd, five of the next seven games will be played in E.A. Diddle Arena for WKU.

Season tickets and single-game tickets for Lady Topper basketball games are now on sale. Tickets can be purchased online (here) or by calling 1-800-5-BIGRED. Tickets can also be purchased in-person at the WKU Ticket Office located in E.A. Diddle Arena.

How to Follow the Lady Toppers: For complete information on WKU Lady Topper Basketball, visit WKUSports.com or follow the program via social media @LadyTopperHoops on Twitter, @LadyTopperHoops on Instagram and on Facebook at facebook.com/WKUWomensBasketball.