WKU Basketball defeated the Georgetown College Tigers 88-68 in the last game of the Hilltoppers’ preseason Saturday afternoon  at E.A. Diddle Arena.

Dontaie Allen had a great game to celebrate his birthday. He led the Hilltoppers in scoring with 18 points and shot 3-7 from beyond the arc. Jordan Rawls was a huge part of the second half turnaround for WKU as he had seven assists in the final 20. WKU as a whole shot very well from the perimeter. The HIlltpppers shot 50% from three with  39 of the Hilltoppers 88 came from three pointers. The WKU bench outscored the Tigers 37-10, 16 of the points came in the second half. 

Despite getting off to a slow start, the Hiltopper defense was stifling against the Tigers. Stansbury’s defense forced 18 Georgetown turnovers, with 10 steals and six blocks. In the final 10 minutes of the game, the Hilltoppers held the Tigers to four points in the last 10 minutes of the game. 

“Luke shot it, Dontaie shot it, Landers shot it,” said head coach Rick Stansbury. “When you have three guys that are capable of jumping up and making shots at any time, it makes it hard to defend. 

On the other side of the ball senior forward Drew Lamont practically carried the Tigers on his back. Lamont, the University of Wyoming transfer, had 20 points and seven rebounds. The big man shot 50% from beyond the arc and played 32 of the 40 minutes. 

“Give Georgetown some credit, they got a really nice team” said Stansbury “ We knew that big boy can shoot it and that causes us problems.”

The Hilltoppers started off the first half on fire. Sixth year guard Luke Frampton went 3/3 from three to put the Hilltoppers up 9-4 early. However,  the Tigers wouldn’t back down and after a 7-0 run, Georgetown tied the game up at 13.

 After back to back threes from junior Khristian Lander and redshirt junior Dontaie Allen the Hilltoppers got back up to an eight point lead. But just like they did most of the game. Georgetown would not go away easily . The Tigers tied the game up at 25. The rest of the half stayed pretty close and the Hilltoppers found themselves leading five going into halftime.

The second half started off with both clubs trading scores. Tigers Drew Lamont hit a three that gave the Tigers their largest lead of the night, 54-50. Yet, the Hilltoppers began to prove to be too much for the Tigers. Around the 10 minute mark WKU went on a 25-6 run to end the game, defeating the Tigers by 20. 

“I think we did a really good job, early we got punched in the mouth,” said sixth year senior Luke Frampton. “ We fought through adversity and that just shows how deep this team is and how mature we are.”  

The Hilltoppers will officially kick off the 2022-23 season Thursday, Nov, 10 on the road in Richmond, KY as they play the EKU Colonels in Alumni Coliseum at 6 p.m. CT.