BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — WKU Hilltopper Basketball got strong efforts from Josh Anderson and Charles Bassey and dominated the free-throw line to pick up an 81-73 home win over Marshall on Friday.
The senior guard Anderson gave the Hilltoppers 22 points, four steals and 9-of-9 free throws, while the junior center Bassey turned in a monster effort with 21 points, a career-high 19 rebounds and five blocks.
WKU (10-4 overall, 3-2 Conference USA) made 19 of 21 free throws and shot 47.5% from the field to help offset 20 turnovers.
"It's never easy playing them, that style is different," WKU head coach Rick Stansbury said. "I thought our guys, the one thing that I've been preaching that I thought was better tonight, and we've got to continue to get better at it, I thought we were more player driven. What I mean by that is, just accepting responsibility in talking and communicating. Us coaches, we can't play the game. We've got to get our team, and we naturally have a quiet team, but we've got to get a little bit out of everybody, and I do think that was better tonight."
The Hilltoppers made 15 of 17 free throws in the first half, and turned an 18-14 deficit into a 23-18 advantage with a 9-0 run.
Anderson scored seven straight points to make it 36-27 with 4:10 to go, and WKU took a 46-34 lead into the break.
Marshall (7-3, 1-2) kept chipping away in the second half, and a 10-0 brought the Thundering Herd within one at 60-59 after a 3-pointer by Jannson Williams with 10:04 remaining.
The Hilltoppers answered with huge back-to-back 3s by redshirt junior guard Luke Frampton and redshirt senior guard Kenny Cooper.
Marshall got back within six with under two minutes to go, but WKU senior guard Taveion Hollingsworth stayed composed with a waning shot clock and found Bassey for a lob dunk with 28 seconds to go.
"In the previous game we played, we got off to a slow start, a bad start, and we took an L," Anderson said. "We're not trying to do that moving forward into the season. Once the game started, we realized that we were slacking so we came together and talked it out."
Hollingsworth finished with eight points and four assists, while freshman guard Dayvion McKnight added eight points and six rebounds.
WKU outrebounded the Herd 46-29 and scored 17 second-chance points.
Williams paced Marshall with 19 points, including five made 3-pointers.
The Hilltoppers continue the series with Marshall on the road at 1 p.m. CT Sunday in Huntington, W.Va. The game will stream online on CBS Sports Network on Facebook Watch.
"Just make them shoot less 3s and get up on them a little bit," Bassey said. "They're going to make some, but we want to have them make less than they did today. We just need to get up on them and play good defense. I'm probably going to watch film and see what we can do better. We're going to take away some lobs that they got today."
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