It was a cold 23 degrees outside Redbird Arena for

WKU’s road game against Illinois State on Friday night.

Inside the arena, the Lady Toppers’ shooting was just

as cold.

WKU shot just 27 percent in a 71-45 loss to the

Redbirds, falling to 2-8 on the year.

“We had some tremendous looks,” Head Coach Mary

Taylor Cowles told WKU’s Big Red Radio after the game. “There were

some things from an offensive standpoint that we did good on

execution and we’d be two or three feet from the basket and miss

wide open layups.”

The shooting woes were spread across the Lady Topper

lineup.

Freshman forward Chasity Gooch shot 4-of-18,

sophomore guard Chaney Means went 0-for-5 and senior forward

Vanessa Obafemi shot 1-for-6.

Senior forward Keshia Mosley, who scored 12 points,

was the only WKU player to score in double-digits.

“That’s very frustrating when you get through your

offense and you execute and you get those sort of looks,” Cowles

said.

WKU trailed 22-17 before ISU launched a 14-2 run with

5:44 to open a 17-point lead.

Redbird guard Candace Sykes scored five of her

game-high 19 points during the run while forward Marley Hall, who

finished with 18, pitched in with four points during the

four-minute stretch.

The Lady Toppers, who scored just six points in the

first 12 minutes of the second half on Wednesday in a loss to

Tennessee Tech, had similar second half problems on Friday.

WKU scored just 20 points in the second half,

shooting 7-of-28 in the final 20 minutes.

“We’ve got to put an entire basketball game

together,” Cowles said. “We can’t just score in spurts, our

schedule is too tough. We’ve got to put a 40 minute game

together.”

The Lady Toppers won’t have to wait long to have a

chance to do just that.

WKU comes back home on Sunday to begin Sun Belt

Conference play against East Division rival Florida International,

the Lady Toppers’ fourth game in seven days.

FIU is 5-3 this season, led offensively by guard

Jerica Coley and her 23.3 points per game average.

Cowles said her team will have to put the ball

through the net better if they’re to have any chance against the

Golden Panthers on Sunday.

“I felt like tonight we took some bad shots on

offense,” Cowles said. “Just bad timing, bad positioning, bad shots

on ball reversal from side-to-side as opposed to inside-out kicks.

We’ve got to in practice understand those situations or our

shooting isn’t going to get any better.”