The WKU (12-5, 3-2 CUSA) and Middle Tennessee (12-6, 4-1 CUSA) women's basketball rivalry has seen a little bit of everything –100-plus point thrillers, multi-overtime games, defensive grind-it-out games, long streaks, short streaks, etc. There's been some blowouts, but nearly half of the 75 meetings between the two teams in the modern of era of women's basketball have been down to the wire, with one team escaping with a single-digit win. Thirty-seven games to be exact. There's been some all-time great games between the programs that have a combined 2,138 wins between them, and Saturday's game will go down as one of them.
The Lady Raiders had a CUSA record 33-game winning streak against conference opponents coming into the game and had won five-straight against the Lady Toppers. The 33-game winning streak actually started with WKU on Feb. 9, 2023. How fitting that WKU would be the one to end it.
HOW IT HAPPENED
WKU couldn't have imagined a worse start to the game, going down 8-0 and being outrebounded 10-0 in the first three minutes of the game. Head coach Greg Collins didn't like what he saw and called a timeout to regroup the team. WKU scored its first points of the game on a 3-pointer from Zsofia Telegdy. The rest of the quarter was nearly even with Middle Tennessee outscoring WKU 11-10 to take a 19-10 lead into the second quarter.
The two teams went back-and-forth in the second quarter. WKU was able to cut the lead down to six with 39 seconds left, but the Lady Raiders scored three to end the quarter, taking a 34-25 lead into halftime.
The WKU offense and defense came alive in the third quarter. The Lady Toppers scored 20 points on 16-34 shooting from the field while holding Middle Tennessee to just nine points on 8-22 shooting.
A three from Josie Gilvin followed by a layup from Acacia Hayes cut Middle Tennessee's lead down to four to start the second half. The Lady Raiders responded with a bucket, but WKU scored four straight to get back within two. Middle Tennessee once again responded with a basket, but the Lady Toppers chipped away again and a pair of made free throws from Gilvin tied the game with 4:15 left in the quarter. The Lady Raiders scored four straight, but a three from Mariama Sow and made jumper from Alexis Mead gave WKU its first lead of the game with 1:47 left. Middle Tennessee tied the game just moments later but a bucket from Destiny Salary just before the buzzer gave WKU a 45-43 lead going into the final quarter.
The fourth quarter started with an 8-2 run by the Lady Raiders to take a 51-47 lead with 7:01 left in the quarter. That's when the WKU rally took over. The Lady Toppers outscored Middle Tennessee 16-7 in the final seven minutes. Gilvin scored 10 of those 16 points for the Lady Toppers in the final seven minutes.
A three from Gilvin started the run. Gilvin got a steal on Middle Tennessee's next possession and Hayes capitalized with another layup to retake the lead. The Lady Raiders came right back with a basket, but Gilvin scored once again on a jumper to put WKU back on top. Another steal from Gilvin gave WKU the ball back and Hayes once again came through with a layup. Both teams went over two minutes without scoring but another three from Gilvin got WKU back in the scoring column and gave the Lady Toppers a 6-point lead. Middle Tennessee cut it to one with 1:33 left in the game, but Gilvin kept her fourth quarter magic going once again with a layup. From there, WKU was able to come up with a steal and two offensive rebounds to gain possession and keep it for 40 seconds in the final minute of play. That long possession ended with Destiny Salary putting back her own missed shot with 12 seconds left to give WKU a five-point lead that would hold.
After giving up that 8-0 run to start the game, WKU outscored Middle Tennessee 63-50, including 38-24 in the second half.
NOTABLES
- Josie Gilvin led the team in scoring for the second time this season, finishing with 17 points, six rebounds and five steals.
- Acacia Hayes joined her in double figures with 13 points, her sixth time scoring in double digits in the last seven games.
- Caleigh-Rose West came in off the bench to contribute a career high 10 points. She outscored the entire Middle Tennessee bench on her (MT had 6 bench points).
- The Lady Toppers improve to 98-7 under head coach Greg Collins when holding a lead with five minutes left in a game.
- WKU also improves to 92-25 (9-1 this season) under Collins when holding teams below 70 and 45-9 (5-0 this season) when keeping them below 60.
- The Lady Toppers were the first CUSA team this season to score over 50 points against the league's best defense in Middle Tennessee.
- WKU moves to 25-17 against the Lady Raiders in Bowling Green.
QUOTABLE
Associate head coach Todd Buchanan:
"I think anytime you play against a really good team like Middle Tennessee, I have so much respect for them and what they've built there, I think you have to play together. That's what we talked about all week. We've been trying to break this thing down and work on specific things since about Monday. Then we got really into the scouting part of it more on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. I think it's all about team. It's all about the five on the floor and playing together and playing with the huge heart they had in the second half."
Junior guard Josie Gilvin:
"I think we did a really good job of penetrating and moving the ball during the fourth quarter. It was easy to get our shots up. We were just finding the right people at the right time. Executing on those easy baskets."
Senior forward Caleigh-Rose West:
"Coach (Collins) has mostly been preaching being relentless in the timeouts and in practice. So we're trying to buy into that as a team. Basketball is a game of runs, so it isn't always going to go your way. But it's about how we came out and I feel like the team did a great job energy wise. Being a sister to whoever you're on the court with or not on the court with at the time. Everybody was bought in this game."
NEXT UP
The Lady Toppers stay home to host Louisiana Tech (Jan. 23) and Sam Houston (Jan. 25) next week. Thursday's game against LA Tech is Education Day in Diddle Arena with tipoff set for 11 a.m. Saturday's game against Sam Houston will be at 2 p.m.
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 X, @LadyTopperHoops on Instagram and on Facebook at facebook.com/WKUWomensBasketball.
