WKU’s stingy defense forced Troy to shoot 28.3 percent from the field Saturday afternoon en route to a 60-51 win.

 

It was the Toppers’ second win in as many tries on the road to tip off Sun Belt Conference play.

 

Junior forward George Fant led the way for WKU with 12 points and nine rebounds. Four other Toppers — senior guard Caden Dickerson, junior guard T.J. Price, O’Kara Akamune and freshman guard Chris Harrison-Docks — each knotted nine points a piece as the team shot over 47 percent from the field.

 

Troy missed its first 13 shots as WKU took a 9-0 lead in the game’s first six minutes, but the Trojans fought back, taking the lead 15-14 with just over five minutes left in the half.

 

Two straight buckets from senior forward O’Karo Akamune, who made his 2013-14 debut on Saturday, gave the Toppers a three-point lead.

 

WKU went to the half with a 21-17 lead thanks to its defense. It held Troy to just 15.6 percent from the field. The Toppers, for their part, shot 37.5 percent from the field but allowed the Trojans to stay in the game thanks to seven first half turnovers. 

 

They also only connected on two of their eight free throw attempts in the first 20 minutes.

 

Midway through the second half, Akamune finished a shot inside and was fouled. He finished the free throw, extending WKU’s lead to 10. On the Toppers’ next possession he scored, once again, inside, to push the lead to 12.

 

That lead ballooned to 19 points when Dickerson knocked down a long, two-point jumper. Troy cut the lead to six points late, but couldn’t get over the proverbial hump on the way to the loss.

After winning its first two Sun Belt Conference games on the road,

 

WKU (10-5, 2-0) will return to the friendly confines of Diddle Arena to play Georgia State on Jan. 9.