Two late turnovers by WKU Women’s Basketball proved fatal in the Lady Toppers’ 70-67 loss to New Mexico State Thursday night in Diddle Arena.

Trailing by three points with just over a minute remaining, senior forward Zsofia Telegdy lost control of sophomore guard Trinity Rowe’s pass under WKU’s basket for a turnover. Sophomore forward Torri James overthrew a down-court pass to senior guard Tia Shelling, giving possession back to the Aggies with 30 seconds left. 

Shelling stole the ball at the 22-second mark and went coast-to-coast for a layup, bringing the Lady Toppers within one. Sophomore guard Salma Khedr stole the Aggies’ inbound pass on the next possession to give the Lady Toppers a chance to take the lead.

A play drawn up for Khedr ended with the ball in the hands of junior forward Tatum Boettjer, who shot from beyond the arc and missed it long, ending the game. 

“She’s good if she can get close to the rim,” Head Coach Greg Collins said about Khedr. “That’s why we ran that little play to try to get her a basket right there on the weak side.”

Khedr finished as the Lady Toppers’ leading scorer with 18, 16 of which she scored in just the second quarter. James and Telegdy joined Khedr in double figures, with 12 and 10, respectively.

NMSU shot 52% from the floor and 33% from long range compared to WKU’s 51% field-goal and 29% 3-point shooting. For the fourth game in a row, the Lady Toppers lost the rebounding battle. WKU grabbed just 15 boards, not even scratching the surface of NMSU’s 41 boards.

“We had several defensive boards that we just didn’t get,” Collins said. “They had more offensive rebounds than we had rebounds. And that’s just not okay.”

The loss, which is their fourth consecutive, dropped the Lady Toppers to 4-10 overall and 0-3 in Conference USA. 

WKU will stay at home to host the University of Texas at El Paso Saturday at noon. The game can be streamed on ESPN+.