The first half of the conference schedule for Western Kentucky featured just one loss against the bottom portion of Conference USA.

The true measurement comes Thursday for the Lady Toppers, who welcome Rice to E.A. Diddle Arena for a 6 p.m. tipoff to kick off a stretch of games against the top half of the conference.

Rice (18-3 overall, 9-0 C-USA) is the only unbeaten team in league play and has losses only to Texas A&M, UCLA and North Carolina.

“We’re about to play the top of the conference,” WKU coach Greg Collins said. “That’s good for us and we’re ready for a challenge like that. We’ll find out how good we are and what we’re made of.”

WKU (14-9, 8-1) joins Middle Tennessee as the two teams sitting one game back of the Owls in the C-USA standings. Thursday marks the only regular-season meeting between WKU and Rice, but the Lady Toppers have remaining league games against MTSU, North Texas, Marshall and Alabama-Birmingham.

After Thursday comes a home game against North Texas on Saturday before road games at MTSU and UAB, which combine for a 14-4 record in C-USA.

“As a team we don’t really pay attention to that,” WKU guard/forward Dee Givens said. “We take it one game at a time and (Thursday) we play Rice.”

None has posed the league dominance Rice has to this point in the year. Up until a 48-42 win against Old Dominion last Saturday, Rice had won every other C-USA game by double digits.

The Lady Toppers got a taste of that last year when they visited Rice and left with a 73-58 loss. A second meeting last year was prevented by UAB knocking the Owls out of the C-USA Tournament semifinals.

Now Rice boasts the league’s Preseason Player of the Year Erica Ogwumike, who averages a double-double at 16.3 points and 11 rebounds per game.

There’s also an obvious presence in the Owls lineup that could be familiar to some in southcentral Kentucky.

Nancy Mulkey, a 6-foot-9 redshirt sophomore center, is averaging 12.8 points, 5.8 rebounds with 49 blocks in 13 games. Mulkey sat out last season after transferring from Oklahoma. She attended Drakes Creek Middle School as a seventh- and eighth-grader and played for the Greenwood High School varsity team.

Mulkey moved to Cypress, Texas, to start high school and was the nation’s tallest player in the 2016 signing class.

“A 6-9 in the middle changes everything,” Collins said. “But honestly that team is built well from top to bottom. They play well and don’t make a lot of mistakes.

“The 6-9 changes things because we don’t see that. On defense, we have to make sure she doesn’t get catches close to the rim. We have to make sure she doesn’t get good touches. On the opposite end, now you think you’ll get the basket for a layup and that’s not going to happen. We have to look to get open shots.”

Thursday’s game pits one of the top scoring teams against one of C-USA’s best defenses. WKU leads the league at 76.5 points per game and Rice has the second-best scoring defense at 54.6 points allowed per game, trailing only MTSU (54.2).

The Lady Toppers saw a mix of success in their recent Texas road sweep. WKU earned its first win in San Antonio by routing UTSA 81-62 with 51 combined points from Givens and Raneem Elgedawy.

WKU then had to grind out a defensive win and come from behind to beat UTEP. The Lady Toppers trailed by 12 in the first half and rallied for a 64-61 win.

Givens said that variety of road success should serve the team well ahead of playing the top team in C-USA on Thursday.

“Overall I thought it was a good experience and good lessons after the UTEP game,” Givens said. “That game made us come closer together and realize we can win without offense being as on point. We realized defense can win games in the end.”

Rice (18-3, 9-0) at Western Kentucky (14-9, 8-1)

6 p.m., Thursday, E.A. Diddle Arena

Probable starters

Western Kentucky – Sherry Porter, g, 5-7, so. (6.7 ppg, 2.3 rpg); Whitney Creech, g, 5-8, jr. (4.4 ppg, 3.0 apg); Meral Abdelgawad, g, 5-11, fr. (10.1 ppg, 2.9 rpg); Dee Givens, f, 6-1, r-jr. (19.1 ppg, 4.5 rpg); Raneem Elgedawy, f, 6-4, so. (16.8 ppg, 7.9 rpg)

Rice – Jasmine Smith, g, 5-7, fr. (6.7 ppg, 2.4 rpg); Sydne Wiggins, g, 5-11, so. (6.2 ppg, 2.1 rpg); Nicole Iademarco, g, 6-1, sr. (9.5 ppg, 5.0 rpg); Erica Ogwumike, g, 5-9, jr. (16.3 ppg, 11.0 rpg); Nancy Mulkey, c, 6-9, r-so. (12.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg)

Online – CUSA.tv

Radio ESPN 102.7 FM or 1450 AM

Coaches Greg Collins (14-9 first season), Western Kentucky; Tina Langley (72-48 fourth season, 72-48 overall) Rice.

Series Western Kentucky leads the series 3-1 (Rice won the last meeting 73-58 on Feb. 10, 2018, in Houston).

Last time out

Western Kentucky won 64-61 at UTEP on Saturday; Rice won 48-42 over Old Dominion last Saturday.{&end}