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Guard Khristian Lander shoots a three-pointer during a game against the Kentucky Wesleyan College Panthers in the Diddle arena on Monday, Nov. 6, 2023.

In a thrilling home opener, the Hilltoppers took on the KWC Panthers in Diddle Arena, ultimately securing a 90-64 victory, and starting off the year with a notch in the win column.

WKU opened up the game with explosivity, giving the Hilltoppers an 18-9 lead with just over ten minutes to go in the 1st Half. Led by the interior presence of Babacar Faye and Khristian Lander, the Hilltoppers were able to contain the Panthers throughout the first 20 minutes. It was the Hilltopper defense that propelled them in this game, forcing the Panthers into shooting an uncharacteristic 20% from 3-point range, and 35% from the field in its entirety throughout the 1st Half. 

The Hilltoppers took advantage of their size and speed by opening up the 2nd Half with a dominant 14-0 run to silence the momentum that KWC brought to the end of the 1st.

It wasn’t a matter of KWC not hitting their shots though, as they shot over 50% though the first 10 minutes, it was WKU’s ability to force them into uncomfortable situations, and ultimately allow them to make their own errors.

Teagan Moore was the man with the hot hand in the 2nd Half, dropping double-digit points during his 11 minutes on the floor. However, the ‘Man-of-the-Match’ was College of Charleston transfer, Babacar Faye.

Faye’s double-double, including 6 offensive rebounds, propelled WKU’s offense to the victory over the Panthers.

Starting off 1-0 in the Steve Lutz regime has been on the agenda of WKU since his signing in March. During his post-game presser, Coach Lutz revealed the emphasis that Faye had on his gameplan coming into tonight.

“Baba is usually, you know, if you look at his minutes at College of Charleston, his minutes played and his rebounds, he’s been a good rebounder.” Lutz said, “He hasn’t had that translate thus far into practice or into our scrimmages. The first time we saw that was Friday, when we did an inter squad scrimmage.”

Lutz has been very secretive about his Starting-5 this season, and he revealed that it was it was literally a game-time decision when it came to who would be on the floor during tip-off.

“I probably made that decision on my walk in-between shoot around and the game today,” Lutz stated with a smile, “But it changes every day.”

WKU travels to Wichita State this Thursday to play the Shockers as they look to advance to 2-0.