HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – WKU women's basketball defeated FIU, 73-66, in the quarterfinal of the Conference USA Tournament on Thursday afternoon in Propst Arena. With the win WKU advances to Friday night's semi-final matchup with Middle Tennessee.
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WKU (23-8, 13-5 CUSA) had a wire-to-wire lead against the Panthers (11-19, 7-11 CUSA).
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HOW IT HAPPENED
Mead opened up the scoring, knocking down a pair of free throws at the line to give WKU a 2-0 lead at the 8:35 mark. Chatfield recorded the first field goal of the game with a driving layup through the lane. Chatfield then logged a steal turning that into two on the other end. Forcing FIU into their fourth turnover, Mead found Telegdy for a three forcing an FIU timeout, leading 11-0 with 6:54 left in the first period. Out of the break, Telegdy knocked down another triple, this from the left corner, pushing the Lady Topper lead to 14. An FIU free throw stopped the 14-0 WKU run with 5:50 left in the first.
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The first field goal for FIU came nearly six minutes in, cutting the Lady Topper lead down to 17-5 with 4:08 left. That would spark a 9-0 run that made it a five-point game with 2:11 left in the quarter. The 4:01 scoreless drought was snapped as Mead found Destiny Salary cross court for the layup with 17 seconds left as WKU would hold a 19-12 advantage after the first quarter of play.
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Salary found Gilvin for a layup to start play in the second, marking the seventh assist of the game for WKU. A 2:48 drought allowed the Panthers to cut the lead to one possession with 4:39 left in the half. Mya Practher ended the drought with a layup. The Panthers responded but Mead would push the lead back to six with the first three of the quarter for WKU. The Lady Toppers struggled to score for the final 2:26 of the half, leading 29-25 at the halftime break.
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After FIU scored first, Chatfield found Mead under the basket for a bucket, leading 31-27 just over 30 seconds into the third. The Panthers cut the lead to two, but Salary found Gilvin for a corner three, pushing the lead to five. FIU would hit one at the line but a quick 5-0 run for the Lady Toppers forced FIU into a timeout, leading 39-31 with 7:25 left in the third. Acacia Hayes' first points of the game came on a Mead assisted three from the wing extending the Lady Topper lead to nine.
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With 4:11 left in the quarter, Mead connected on a pair at the stripe. Mead connected with Salary on back-to-back possessions, giving WKU its first double digit lead of the half, forcing FIU into a timeout, up 48-38 with 2:42 left in the third. Hayes logged her first steal and found a lane for a layup and a 10-point advantage. On the next possession Hayes pushed the Lady Topper lead to 11 with a triple from the wing. FIU scored the last four of the quarter as WKU led 53-46 heading into the fourth.
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The final quarter started just like the first with Mead hitting a pair at the free throw line. With 6:58 left, Gilvin grabbed her own miss and found Telegdy for a three from the top of the key to put the Lady Toppers up by a dozen. FIU snapped a 3:50 drought from the field to cut the lead to 10. Mead's jumper would push the lead back out to 12 with 4:11 left.
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FIU knocked down a three to make it a nine point game. A pair of free throws from Hayes pushed the Lady Topper lead back out to 11. With 1:44 left, FIU cut the lead back down to single digits, taking a timeout with WKU up 68-59. Now up seven, Gilvin connected on a baseline jumper for a 70-61 lead with 1:05 left. A three with 34 seconds left again cut the WKU lead to 72-66. FIU fouled Gilvin and she hit 1-of-2, now leading 73-66. FIU missed on the other end as Mead dribbled out the clock for a 73-66 win.
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NOTABLES
- Alexis Mead led WKU with 21 points, nine assists, six rebounds and four steals. The nine assists matched her career high and it was her sixth 20-point performance of the season. Mead passed Meral Abdelgawad on WKU's all-time scoring list, moving into 24th place with 1,366 career points.
- Josie Gilvin notched her fifth double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds. She's the first Lady Topper to have five double-doubles in a season since Abdelgawad had five in 2021-22.
- The 23 wins is the most for WKU since the 2017-18 season and is the 18th time WKU has notched at least 23 wins in a season.
- The win advances WKU to the semifinals of the CUSA Tournament for the sixth time since joining the league.
- WKU is now 6-2 in the quarterfinal round of the tournament since joining CUSA and 32-5 all-time in quarterfinal rounds of conference tournaments.
- The Lady Toppers improve to 38-13 against FIU all-time and 3-1 against the Panthers in conference tournaments.
- The Lady Toppers connected on nine 3-pointers in the game, moving their total to 244 for the season. That is now the second most by any team at WKU, behind 289 made 3-pointers in 2022-23.
- WKU is 102-26 under Collins when holding teams below 70 and 20-2 this season when doing so. The Lady Toppers improve to 79-21 under Collins and 15-3 on the season when scoring 70-or-more points.
- The Lady Toppers finished with 20 assists. WKU is 17-2 this season when notching 15-or-more helpers and 7-1 when dishing out 20-or-more. WKU's season total for team assists is now 512 which is the 10th most by any WKU team in history.
- The Lady Toppers shot 42.4 percent from the floor while FIU shot 40.7 percent from the field. WKU is 20-2 this season when outshooting their opponents.
- WKU outrebounded the Panthers for the second time this season, outdoing FIU on the boards 38-32. The Lady Toppers improve to 12-2 on the season when outdoing the opponent on the glass.
- The Lady Toppers had 10 steals in the game, bringing the season total to 349 which is the seventh most by a WKU team in program history.
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NEXT UP
The Lady Toppers will take on Middle Tennessee in the semi-final round of the CUSA Championship on Friday, March 14 at 8 p.m. at the Propst Arena.
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How to Follow the Lady Toppers:Â 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.
