Western Kentucky redshirt junior guard Alexis Brewer (left) pushes the ball up the floor during WKU’s 104-74 exhibition win over West Virginia State on Thursday at E.A. Diddle Arena. For more photos and video, visit bgdailynews.com.

An emphasis on sharing is what Greg Collins is charting daily in Western Kentucky practices. At the end of each session, the Lady Toppers review how many assists each player produced in an effort to even the stat across the board.

That aspect of the game may not have meant as much when there were two obvious stars the Lady Toppers would run through on offense. But the current situation at WKU means everyone needs a share of the action to produce results.

“Our biggest improvement has been sharing the ball,” Collins said. “Last year we ran a lot of things through Ivy (Brown) and Tashia (Brown), so this year we worked a lot making sure the ball gets distributed. We’re moving the ball, not holding the ball.”

The Lady Toppers had the luxury of getting results from Ivy Brown and Tashia Brown a year ago, but their graduation also meant the exit of more than 50 percent of the team’s scoring and 40 percent of the rebounding.

As evidenced by WKU’s 104-74 exhibition win last Thursday against West Virginia State, that sharing plan could work if everything goes right.

WKU had 29 assists between eight players against 20 turnovers and scored 32 points on fast-break opportunities. The Lady Toppers displayed a new quickness that resulted in 12 seconds per possession in the win.

Whether that translates against a tougher schedule – starting with No. 4 Louisville in Diddle Arena on Tuesday night – remains in question. But at least Collins has seen what a new, faster approach can look like if the Lady Toppers are in a rhythm.

“I think just how we play quicker, getting defensive rebounds and looking for your person, once you get the defensive rebound you know somebody is running down the court,” sophomore guard Sherry Porter said. “That selflessness, that’s how we’re getting all those assists all of a sudden.”

The 29 assists Thursday won’t count since it happened in an exhibition contest, but it’s noteworthy in that WKU never broke 20 assists in 33 games last season.

WKU had 20 or more assists on four occasions in the 2016-17 season with Micah Jones and Kendall Noble splitting point guard duties. Noble had back-to-back seasons with 172 and 189 assists.

But because the offense ran mainly through Tashia Brown at 22.5 points per game last year, the opportunities were limited for everyone to get involved to the degree expected this season.

Whitney Creech had a breakout season as the primary point guard with 95 assists against 55 turnovers for a 1.73 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Tashia Brown had the second-most assists last year with 71.

“We mention sharing the ball and that’s something we work on in practice every day,” Creech said. “We chart how many assists we have for each player so at the end of practice, coach tells us how many we had so we put a lot of focus into that, sharing the ball and getting others open.”

WKU had plenty of opportunity for sharing in the exhibition with everyone playing at least 13 minutes and six players seeing at least 20 minutes on the floor.

Freshman Meral Abdelgawad led with six assists, Porter had five while Creech, Dee Givens and Sidnee Bopp each had four.

WKU’s desired up-tempo pace should have its biggest success if everyone is sharing the ball as expected. The exhibition was a good sign for Collins in seeing the Lady Toppers translate the idea outside of practice.

“We’re trying to get the ball out more quickly and down the floor more quickly and get into our offense,” Collins said. “I think those have been the biggest improvements.”