WKU women’s basketball defeats North Texas to end regular season

Ian Pitchford

Freshman guard Acacia Hayes (10) on a drive under heavy defense during the matchup with UNT in E.A. Diddle Arena on March 4, 2023. WKU won 76-67.

Chaz Mackey, Sports Reporter

WKU women’s basketball (17-12, C-USA 14-6) ended their regular season on Saturday, March 4 with a win over North Texas (8-12, C-USA 11-19) 76-67.

With the win, WKU clinched the two seed in C-USA. WKU has won 16 of their last 23 games and is ranked number one in the conference in steals and turnover margin. 

The defensive strength was displayed in the weekend game as WKU fought back from a deficit of 11 points in the second quarter.

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Freshman guard Acacia Hayes led WKU in scoring with 17 points. Hayes went on six of 10 in shooting and also grabbed four rebounds and two assists. 

Freshman guard Karris Allen had a career high of 16 points, shooting six of eleven from the field. Nine points came from the three-point line. She also acquired four rebounds. 

Sophomore guard Macey Blevins scored 12 points and was perfect from the floor (5-5), which included two three pointers. Sophomore guard Alexis Mead also contributed with eight points, going 4-4 from the charity stripe and added six assists to the stat line.

Key points for this game was the efficiency of the team with shooting the ball, WKU shot 53% from the field making it their second time in the last three games doing so.  WKU’s bench also had a strong performance, claiming 40 of the teams’ 76 points 

Additionally, the Hilltoppers forced Texas to commit 20 turnovers which makes the 16th time this season the Lady Toppers have had a 20-plus turnover night.

WKU will travel to Frisco, Texas to compete in the C-USA Championship. The Hilltoppers will face the winner of the seven seed North Texas and ten seed UAB match-up on Thursday, March 9 with a tipoff at 1:30 p.m. CST. 

 

Sports reporter Chaz Mackey can be reached at [email protected] .