Above: Western Kentucky’s Ivy Brown (right) dribbles past Middle Tennessee’s Gabby Lyon on Thursday during the Lady Toppers’ 76-60 win at Murphy Center in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Below: WKU’s Tashia Brown shoots a free throw against MTSU.

Just how good is the Ivy Brown and Tashia Brown combo? Not just under Michelle Clark-Heard, but in Lady Topper basketball history?

The numbers speak for themselves, and the Browns will no doubt go down as Lady Topper greats.

“They’re amazing players and definitely the best players I’ve ever played with,” junior Sidnee Bopp said before WKU’s two-game road swing to close the regular season.

Western Kentucky (21-8 overall, 12-4 Conference USA) has the opportunity to win its third C-USA championship in four seasons this week at the C-USA tournament at The Star in Frisco, Texas. Kendall Noble and Micah Jones won three conference titles in four seasons with WKU winning the Sun Belt Conference tournament title in 2014, and the C-USA titles in 2015 and 2017.

The Brown duo can add their names to that list of three-time champions. By comparison, the last stretch of time any Lady Topper could claim that would be from 1988-95 when WKU won six league championships in that span.

But Ivy Brown and Tashia Brown might top any other duo in a single season.

Tashia Brown is currently third on WKU’s all-time scoring list with 1,994 points and well on pace to join only three other Lady Toppers to score over 2,000 career points. Her 22.9 points per game average this season ranks sixth in the country and leads all of C-USA, making her the front-runner for the league’s Player of the Year honor.

Right behind her is the Hodgenville native Brown, who is the only player in the country averaging at least 16.9 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game. Ivy Brown is a candidate for C-USA Defensive Player of the Year, and would have a strong case for the league’s overall player of the year award if Tashia Brown was not the overwhelming favorite.

“When you listen to all the statistical things they’ve done, all the wins, I don’t know when I’ll ever have a chance to coach two players like that,” Heard said.

In six seasons under Heard, no Lady Topper pair has combined for a higher average in points in a single season (19.9). In WKU’s 30-5 season in 2014-15, Chastity Gooch and Alexis Govan combined to average 17 points per game when Gooch (17.2 ppg) finished fourth in the league in scoring and Govan (16.8) placed behind her in fifth.

Only Natalie Powers (22.3) and ShaRae Mansfield’s (19.4) combined average of 20.8 ppg in the 2000-01 tops what the Browns have done in 2017-18.

In 2014-15, Gooch (603 points) and Govan (555) combined for 1,158 points to place fifth and sixth, respectively, for most points scored in a season by a WKU senior. Ivy Brown (489) and Tashia Brown (663) currently sit six points behind that mark going into the conference tournament, and Brown’s total is currently third on that list individually.

Tashia Brown already holds the school record for most field goals attempted in a career (1,781) and in a season (569).

Ivy Brown currently has 949 career rebounds and will likely hold on to seventh on the school’s career list behind Tiffany Porter-Talbert’s 995 career boards. With 285 rebounds this season, she only needs 13 more to move into the top 10 for most in a season.

On an advanced analytics scale, Ivy Brown’s senior season has been one of the best in the country offensively. According to Women’s Open Look Analytics, Brown has the nation’s third-highest offensive rating of 136.1, which is measured by a player’s points produced per hundred individual possessions. The two players above Ivy Brown are Katie Lou Samuelson (138.9) and Kia Nurse (137.4), both from Connecticut.

“I don’t think we can put into words the legacy they’ll leave on this program and the belief they had in this program before there was another championship or all those things,” Heard said before the Browns’ senior night against Charlotte. “I know their stats and stuff speaks for itself, but to put this team in position to lead as a group and put those players that have never been in this position before … what they’ve done, I can’t put into words.

“I’m very humbled and just so honored to be their coach and to watch how much they’ve grown over these four years.”{&end}