BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — It wasn't easy, but WKU women's basketball earned its third consecutive victory on Sunday with an 81-70 win against UTSA in E.A. Diddle Arena. The Lady Toppers improve to 17-7 on the season and 10-3 in Conference USA. WKU has the most league wins of any team in C-USA and sits in second place in the East division standings behind Charlotte.
"We've been in, I guess you would call it, tournament mode since we lost that game to Charlotte," said head coach Greg Collins. "It just becomes one game – survive and advance. We're been working in practice on these situations. I think our decision-making in respect to what we should do is improving, but sometimes our execution is not there yet. That's a learning process. I'm proud of how we fought. You don't get style points – you just get a 'W'."
WKU has now won 10-or-more conference games in nine of the last 10 seasons.
Meral Abdelgawad led the Lady Toppers with 28 points and 10 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season and her 13th 20-point game. Alexis Mead filled out the stat sheet with 14 points, seven assists, five rebounds, and four steals. Macey Blevins had 12 points.
WKU shot 82.6 percent (19-of-23) from the free throw line, which is the second highest percentage of the season. WKU outrebounded the Roadrunners, 38-29, improving to 9-2 on the season when outdoing its opponent on the boards.
"We talked at halftime about if the offense isn't working we need to make sure our defense is going harder so that the offense will flow off of the defense," said freshman guard Jenna Walker. "We took a little more pride in the defense. At times it was a little ugly, but we all fight really hard on defense."
The Lady Toppers took an early lead, but a 7-0 run from UTSA midway through the first quarter put the Roadrunners ahead. They held onto that lead until a 10-0 run from the Lady Toppers put them back on top in the second quarter.
UTSA matched that 10-0 run in the third quarter, retaking the lead and holding onto it until the final minute of the period. WKU scored the final seven points of the frame to take a one-point lead into the final quarter. The Lady Toppers came out a little shaky to start the fourth quarter, but used a 12-0 run midway through to put the Roadrunners away for good. WKU was 11-of-14 from the field during the period, including 3-of-5 from the perimeter.
WKU returns to action next week, taking on Charlotte and Old Dominion. The Lady Toppers face the 49ers (13-8, 9-2 C-USA) on Thursday at 5 p.m. (CT) and the Monarchs (19-5, 9-3 C-USA) on Saturday at 1 p.m. (CT). Both games have heavy C-USA East standings implications with all three teams in the top four of the division.
How to Follow the Lady Toppers: For complete information on Lady Topper Hoops, visit WKUSports.com or follow the program via social media @LadyTopperHoops on Twitter, @LadyTopperHoops on Instagram and on Facebook at facebook.com/WKUWomensBasketball.
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