Lady Toppers shooting for Florida sweep

Tyler Lashbrook

WKU (18-6, 11-4 Sun Belt Conference) is a win away from a weekend sweep in Florida.

The Lady Toppers beat Florida Atlantic 64-61 Wednesday and will face Florida International tomorrow.

WKU got off to a rough start Wednesday, shooting just four-of-12 from the field at the opening and falling behind by 13 in the first half.

The second half, however, was a different story.

WKU shot 14-of-25 from the field at a 56 percent clip in the second half as the team came back to earn a season sweep of the Lady Owls.

The Lady Toppers finished shooting 48.2 percent from the field overall and out-rebounded FAU (11-13, 8-8 SBC) 43-31.

The Lady toppers needed two late free throws from junior guard Chaney Means to seal the win.

“I’m glad we were able to put a game like this away, because we just went through a game in a tight situation and we didn’t finish up,” coach Michelle Clark-Heard said after the game.

Heard was referring to a game on Feb. 9 in Diddle Arena against Arkansas State in which the Lady Toppers were unable to get a close win.

Wednesday’s game in Boca Raton, Fla., was the Lady Topper’s first win at FAU in almost exactly three years.

For WKU, the focus now turns to FIU (15-9, 9-6 SBC).

The Lady Toppers will travel an hour south of Boca Raton to Miami to take on the No. 3 team in the Sun Belt this Saturday.

FIU’s Jerica Coley leads the nation in scoring at 25.5 points per game but scored just 12 points on five-of-14 shooting against the Lady Toppers in Diddle Arena on Nov. 19.

The Lady Panthers have also been getting the job done at the stripe — they lead the Sun Belt with a .774 free-throw percentage.

Heard says that the Lady Toppers will need to rotate different people on Coley and try to limit her touches as much as possible.

Saturday’s game against the Lady Panthers will be the last of this two-game Florida road swing.