Throughout Western Kentucky’s monthlong slump, coach Ken McDonald has maintained that plenty of season remains, and that the Hilltoppers still control their own postseason destiny.

McDonald isn’t totally changing his tune, but after Thursday night’s devastating 67-66 loss at Louisiana-Monroe - perhaps the lowest in a month of low points - McDonald says WKU must start playing better.

And it must happen quick. Fast. In a hurry.

“You want guys to respond and understand that there is a sense of urgency,” McDonald said. “We talk about that as a whole, but the focal point is that we’ve got to get better today. We’re not going to fix everything in one practice or one game, but we’ve got to get better.”

But as McDonald talked about increasing urgency with nine games left in the season and building momentum for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, he also said there’s no need to press the panic button. Instead, the Toppers just need to improve day by day.

“It’s natural to be down, and we talked about it. It’s unacceptable to lose to Monroe - we’re not used to this,” McDonald said. “You do have to put it behind you, but you have to keep learning from your mistakes. And once we get clicking on all cylinders we’re going to be tough, we’re just not there yet.

“There was a sense of urgency (Thursday) in the second half. We played really hard, but it shouldn’t have came down to a last-second foul. You’re encouraged by the second half, but you have to figure out what got you in a hole. And I’m confident we’re going to come out (today) with a lot of intensity and understand that’s why we lost (on Thursday).”

After losing six of their last seven games, the Hilltoppers (12-11, 5-6 Sun Belt Conference) have yet another chance to get back on track this evening. But they’ll have to do it against a team they’ve already lost to this season, as Troy comes to town for a 7 p.m. contest at E.A. Diddle Arena.

The Trojans pulled off a come-from-behind 77-69 win over WKU in Troy, Ala., on Jan. 21.

Troy shot a blistering 64 percent in the second half that night, forced WKU into 17 total turnovers, put five players in double-figures and outscored WKU 42-28 in the second half.

Since then, Troy has won three of its last four games, including a victory over red-hot Middle Tennessee in Murfreesboro on Thursday. The Trojans are tied with MTSU and Florida Atlantic for first place in the Sun Belt East with an 8-4 league record. WKU sits two games behind in the loss column.

“We came out very aggressively in the Troy game in the first half, I really liked our offensive mindset,” McDonald said of WKU’s earlier meeting with the Trojans. “But there were a couple of key turnovers in the second half that led to some easy baskets for Troy that got them back in the game - we have to learn from that.

“They have four guards on the floor at all times and we have to be ready for that, and it’s one of those teams that have a lot of scoring options. We can’t give up those easy ones, we’ve got to fight harder and make it harder for them to score.”

One thing WKU will have tonight that it didn’t during the first meeting is junior forward Sergio Kerusch, who made his return to the floor Thursday at ULM, after recovering from a broken foot that sidelined him for more than a month.

The game also will feature the top two scorers in the league - both WKU senior A.J. Slaughter and Troy senior Brandon Hazzard average 17 points a contest.

WKU missed a prime opportunity to make some headway in the SBC East race Thursday, considering both Florida Atlantic and MTSU fell, creating the three-way tie atop the standings. But with a win tonight, the Hilltoppers can once again make up some ground in an extremely unpredictable league season.

“We have to stay the course,” McDonald said. “It was a big game last night. A lot of teams in our league lost and we had a chance to move up - but we missed that opportunity in the first half. But we had great energy in the second half, guys stepped up and guarded, (junior forward Steffphon) Pettigrew fought his tail off against their big kid, but we’ve got to do it for 40 minutes.

“We can’t just change everything, we’ve got to stay the course. We’ve got to continue to work on all the little things that go into winning.”

The clock is definitely ticking for the 2009-10 Hilltoppers, but McDonald said he’s not about to surrender. Instead, he thinks one big win over a top-tier team can change everything in a heartbeat.

“This is a game that puts us back on track,” he said. “We’re going to put that first half (against ULM) behind us, we’re going to learn from it, we’re going to come out (today) ready to play and try to get back winning again.”

— Read WKU beat writer Nick Baumgardner’s Hilltopper blog at bgdnwkublog.wordpress.com.