Lady Toppers sweep home stretch with victory over UALR

Freshman guard Micah Jones (5) goes up for a rebound against UALR in the second half at E.A. Diddle Arena. 

Tyler Lashbrook

The Lady Toppers swept their series against Arkansas Little-Rock Saturday for the first time since 2008 with a 70-61 victory in Diddle Arena.

WKU (15-3, 8-1 Sun Belt Conference) finished its home stand 3-0 with wins over Florida Atlantic, Louisiana-Lafayette and UALR (11-7, 4-6 SBC) consecutively.

Junior guard Bianca McGee led the way for WKU Saturday with 20 points.

It was McGee’s third straight game with 20 or more points.

Her ability to score the rock has become a significant part of what the Lady Toppers want to do on offense.

Coach Michelle Clark-Heard says McGee is a high risk, high reward player.

“I tell her not to shoot a three and she’ll shoot a three anyway,” Heard said. “But I love coaching Bianca. She’s a competitor and she wants to win and that’s one of the things that has added a great element to our program right now”

But it wasn’t just McGee who found a way to score the ball against UALR – four different Lady Toppers finished with thirteen or more points.

Sophomore guard Alexis Govan scored 20, sophomore forward Chastity Gooch scored 15 and freshman guard Micah Jones chipped in 13, including three 3-pointers.

The little things added up for the Lady Toppers – they hit 21-of-26 from the free throw line and turned the ball over just 10 times.

“To be a great team you can’t have a lot of turnovers,” McGee said. “Twelve or under was our goal and coach has been getting on us all week in practice about that and it carried over to the game.”

The Lady Toppers were averaging 17.4 turnovers a game coming into Saturday’s matchup.

WKU will travel to Mobile, Al. to take on South Alabama (11-7, 4-5 SBC) Wednesday, Jan. 23.