Led by gritty defense, WKU Women’s Basketball controlled their cross-country contest at Southern Utah with a 76-62 win.
Last season’s leading scorer Acacia Hayes was stellar against the Thunderbirds. The sophomore guard racked up an impressive 21 points, three rebounds and two steals.
WKU’s defense ruled the contest. The Lady Toppers forced 25 turnovers in the game, combining for an impressive 19 steals. While WKU’s ability to create takeaways no-doubt changed the game, it was the Lady Toppers ability to capitalize on the turnovers that made the difference, scoring 34 points off turnovers.
Momentum swung back and forth throughout the first quarter. WKU jumped out to an early 9-2 lead, however the Thunderbirds went on a 8-0 run to jump into the lead. A duo of late buckets from the Lady Toppers set the score at 14-12 at the end of the first.
Along with the drastically changing momentum, sloppy basketball infested the first quarter. A combined 15 turnovers plagued the first ten minutes.
Super strong guard play aided a great start to the second quarter for the Lady Toppers. A 9-0 run fueled by the backcourt put WKU up 23-17 at the quarters media timeout. Southern Utah ended the half on a 7-2 run, but the strong start to the quarter set the Lady Toppers up with a 29-24 lead at half.
WKU’s strong performance continued in the second half. The Lady Toppers set the tone for half two with a 22-7 run in the first five minutes. However, Southern Utah were able to end the quarter on a 10-3 run, cutting the Lady Topper lead to 13, 54-41.
The fourth quarter was very even as the Lady Toppers outscored the Thunderbirds 22-21 in the period. Even with the close fourth, the dominance in the previous three quarters carried WKU to victory, 76-62.
WKU will look to build off their momentum against Cornell, as they host the Big Red on Monday Nov. 13 at Diddle Arena.
