BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — WKU Hilltopper Basketball led Old Dominion by 11 at halftime Friday, but couldn't hold on as ODU's Malik Curry sparked the Monarchs to a 71-69 victory over the Hilltoppers in E.A. Diddle Arena.
Curry scored 22 of his game-high 25 points after halftime, including 14 in the first six minutes as Old Dominion used a 17-2 run to surge back in front.
The teams will meet again Saturday at 4 p.m. CT. With a win, the Hilltoppers (17-6 overall, 10-3 Conference USA) can claim the C-USA East Division title and the top overall record in the league.
"I'll give Old Dominion credit," WKU head coach Rick Stansbury said. "They made the plays they had to in the second half once we went up 13. The game just seemed to change at both ends. … And Curry became a one-man show. We switched up defenses on them a couple of times and he made some 3s. Give them credit. We've got to put this one behind us quickly and get ready for tomorrow. We're still playing for that championship, and so are they."
WKU scored the first six points and raced out to a 19-8 lead on a bucket by freshman guard Dayvion McKnight at the 13:01 mark.
Old Dominion (15-6, 11-4) closed the gap with a 9-0 burst, but the Hilltoppers kept the lead, and back-to-back 3s by sophomore guard Jordan Rawls and senior guard Taveion Hollingsworth forced a Monarch timeout at 5:11 with a 36-26 WKU lead.
WKU led 41-30 at halftime and extended the lead to 13 with a lob dunk to redshirt senior forward Carson Williams to start the second half.
But Curry answered with three straight baskets, then later combined with Jaylin Hunter to make three consecutive 3s to open a 47-45 advantage for ODU with 14:04 left.
The teams traded the lead throughout the final minutes, until the Monarchs opened a 70-65 lead with 27 seconds left. In spite of that, WKU found itself with the ball down two with eight seconds left, but a McKnight jumper was off the mark.
"We know we lost today, but we're just going to come back and do what we need to do tomorrow," junior center Charles Bassey said. "We're going to get our minds right and put two halves together. We didn't do that today. We played good the first half and our defense wasn't there the second half. We've just got to come out tomorrow. We're going to go back and watch film and see what we didn't do today in the second half and do that in both halves tomorrow."
Bassey led WKU with 23 points, 15 rebounds and two blocks, while Rawls and Hollingsworth each scored 12 points. Hollingsworth added five assists.
After shooting 50% in the first half, the Hilltoppers shot 29.6% after the break. Old Dominion shot 51.7% in the second half.
Tomorrow's regular-season finale at 4 p.m. will also be Senior Night for five Hilltopper players and one student-manager. The game will again stream on CBS Sports Network on Facebook Watch.
"After tonight, this game is over with," Hollingsworth said. "We don't want to think about this game too much because we're playing for the same thing tomorrow. We just need to come out with energy and come out the same way, just keep it up."
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