SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — WKU Hilltopper Basketball withstood a barrage of hot 3-point shooting from Northern Iowa, opening the season with a 93-87 victory over Northern Iowa in the first round of the Bad Boy Mowers Crossover Classic.
Northern Iowa made 20 of 39 3-pointers, including 12 in the second half, but the Hilltoppers outscored the Panthers 44-12 in the paint and got a massive 42 points off the bench.
"We had an opportunity right off the bat to play one of the better teams in the country, Northern Iowa," WKU head coach Rick Stansbury said. "Everybody that understands basketball across the country, you know how good they are. They did what they do best today. I'm not sure they'll lose another game rest of the season when they make 20 3-pointers… Our guys found ways, we separated the games different times when they made runs at us."
WKU (1-0) advances to face Memphis at 11 a.m. CT Thursday in the semifinals on ESPN.
"Well, it's very obvious they're one of the better basketball teams in the country," Stansbury said. "It'll be a totally different kind of team. Talent wise, they're as talented as most teams in America. Quick, athletic, going to be great off the bounce."
Senior guard Taveion Hollingsworth had 26 points to lead the Hilltoppers, including 10 of 13 makes from the free-throw line.
Freshman guard Dayvion McKnight made play after play in his college debut, contributing 21 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals off the bench.
"I felt great coming into the game," McKnight said. "All the veterans they took me in, so I felt great. How I feel now? We've got a good team, that's how I feel now."
"He's a point guard," Hollingsworth said of McKnight. "He can come out there and facilitate things. The game's all in his hands and he handled that pretty well. We all trusted him and we believe in him. He did what he did."
Redshirt junior guard Luke Frampton scored 14 points and made 3 of 4 shots from 3-point range, and junior center Charles Bassey had 11 points and eight rebounds in his return from a season-ending tibial plateau fracture last year.
Northern Iowa (0-1) got 28 points apiece from both Noah Carter and AJ Green, with Carter making a school-record 9 of 13 3s. Despite that, the Panthers led the game for just under nine minutes.
The Hilltoppers got off to a slow start, but the bench gave a spark with a 10-0 run from the reserves. Junior forward Kevin Osawe's putback made it 14-9 with 11:23 left in the half.
Northern Iowa led 26-22 with 5:29 left in the frame, but WKU rattled off a 14-0 spurt. The exclamation mark was a steal and dunk by Bassey to make it 36-26 with 1:33 remaining.
The Panthers quickly erased WKU's nine-point halftime lead with a flurry of 3s, but the Tops never relinquished the lead.
They got some much-needed cushion with an 8-0 run midway through the second half, including six straight points from Frampton.
WKU made 24 of 28 free throws in the second half to help ice the win.
THE KENTUCKY DEPARTMENT FOR PUBLIC HEALTH – WHEN IT COMES TO TOBACCO, QUITTERS ALWAYS WIN
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