Western Kentucky made one lineup change prior to Saturday’s 75-74 victory over Troy and expect that move to hold throughout the rest of the season.

Forward Matt Maresca made his first career start at Troy in place of Daniel Emerson. That forward spot has been a bit of a revolving door recently.

Emerson had started much of the season and junior Boris Siakam also had a chance to start. But Siakam has had better performances while coming off the bench and Emerson has struggled as of late.

That left the door open for Maresca.

&#8220Matt Maresca is our starter and will be until we’re done playing this year,” WKU coach Darrin Horn said. &#8220In terms of minutes and stuff like that, we’ll rotate it based on fouls and who is playing well.”

Jeremy Evans has played well for the Hilltoppers at the other forward – averaging 9.4 points and 7.6 rebounds in his last 10 games – but Western is looking for more consistency next to him.

&#8220Jeremy is an obvious (starter), not only because he’s starting to do it pretty consistently, but he has the talent to do it every night,” Horn said. &#8220And the other spot, we know what we’re getting from Matt and we know what he gives us. Boris would have been the other possibility but he’s been so much better off the bench.”

Siakam had 10 points and five rebounds off the bench Saturday. But in his three starts against Denver, Louisiana-Monroe and North Texas, Siakam totaled only seven points and 12 rebounds. Siakam is averaging 4.7 points and 3.4 rebounds this year.

Maresca went scoreless in his start on Saturday while playing 10 minutes. He did have two assists, which matched his career high that was set against Austin Peay in his collegiate debut last season.

And Emerson did not play on Saturday after playing only four minutes in Western’s 78-73 loss to Florida Atlantic on Wednesday.

Whether Emerson contributes much on the court the rest of the year remains to be seen.

&#8220I hope so, but (against Troy) we just felt like we’re going to go with the guys we went with,” Horn said. &#8220There’s six of them and we’ve said from the beginning that one or two of them aren’t going to play very much. That’s just reality.”

Turning point?

The Hilltoppers’ victory at Troy seemed needed as Western had lost three of its past four games – including Wednesday at home against FAU.

But don’t call the victory a &#8220turning point” game, according to Horn.

&#8220You talk about turning points and that stuff and you’d think we’d already have had that,” Horn said. &#8220We have to keep doing it again. We talked about it after the game that this is great, but we have to come back and do it again.”

Still, the victory put the Hilltoppers one game away from clinching the Sun Belt Conference Tournament’s No. 3 seed and a first-round bye. Western can earn that by beating Florida International on Saturday. Up first is a nonconference tuneup against Kentucky Wesleyan on Tuesday.

&#8220It feels so good to be able to drive back without sad faces and finally not think about what happened,” WKU point guard Orlando Mendez-Valdez said. &#8220This means a lot.”

Zoned in

Zone defenses have sometimes been a pain for the Hilltoppers and Troy’s zone has been frustrating for Western in its previous two meetings the past two seasons.

But effective movement against the zone allowed Western to leave Troy with a win. Western shot better than 59 percent in the field in the second half and hit 6-of-10 3-pointers in the final 20 minutes.

&#8220That’s the best zone offense we’ve played since I’ve been here,” Horn said.

Mendez-Valdez was especially strong against Troy with 13 points on 3-of-3 shooting beyond the arc. Each 3-pointer came in a two-minute span midway through the second half that kickstarted the Hilltoppers.

&#8220He hit some huge shots in the second half,” Horn said. &#8220You’ve got to make shots on the road. He hit some big ones for us and I thought he did a great job of attacking the zone.”