Western Kentucky is halfway through its six-game tournament. At least that’s the mindset coach Greg Collins instilled in the Lady Toppers in the back half of February leading up to this week’s Conference USA Tournament.

The first-year head coach started a tournament mindset early in the Lady Toppers (17-13 overall, 11-5 C-USA) when a boost was needed and, so far, it’s working.

“We haven’t talked about a three-game championship, we’ve talked about a six-game championship and so our mindset is this is one step,” Collins said. “We knew it would be really difficult if we weren’t in this spot. It’ll still be challenging with tough teams in the first round. I like our confidence, toughness and we have to keep moving forward and take it down to Frisco.”

By winning their last three games of the regular season, the Lady Toppers secured a first-round bye in the postseason tournament at The Star in Frisco, Texas. WKU will be the No. 4 seed and will play the winner of Old Dominion-Florida Atlantic in the quarterfinals Thursday at 11:30 a.m.

Since joining the league in 2014-15, WKU has never failed to secure a first-round bye in the tournament. That all fell into question when the Lady Toppers lost four straight before reeling off three wins in a row.

WKU will arrive in Texas on Tuesday afternoon and have the day off Wednesday to scout its opponent before its postseason begins Thursday.

“It’s big,” redshirt junior Dee Givens said after last week’s win over Middle Tennessee. “Some of us are really tired. We played a lot of minutes in the regular season, so coach always says it’s hard to win four games in four days and win a championship. That first-round bye is really crucial.”

WKU finished tied for the third-best record in the league with Middle Tennessee. No. 24 Rice went 16-0 in the league to earn the No. 1 overall seed while Alabama-Birmingham placed second in the standings at 12-4.

The Lady Toppers, who were picked to place fourth in the preseason poll, had an inexperienced roster heading into the year. Givens, junior Whitney Creech, senior Sidnee Bopp and sophomore Raneem Elgedawy were all role players on last year’s C-USA championship team.

Givens, Creech and Bopp have all been part of the last two squads that breezed through the tournament to win consecutive C-USA crowns. WKU’s road has been more challenging this year as Rice has become the dominant team of the league.

The Owls are likely to await in the semifinals should WKU defeat either the Lady Monarchs or FAU. To keep its momentum going, the Lady Toppers will have to find the same energy that led to wins against Marshall, North Texas and Middle Tennessee to close the year.

“Just tell (underclassmen) to keep the same focus we’ve had the last three games,” Givens said. “Now it’s survive and advance, one game at a time. It doesn’t matter if we win by one or 20, we just try to win the game and get to the next one.”

The Lady Toppers still have clear improvements to be made defensively. By allowing 71.8 points per game, WKU trails only FAU as C-USA’s second-worst scoring defense. On the boards, WKU averaged four fewer rebounds than opponents through conference play.

Those numbers didn’t change much during WKU’s last three victories, but aggressiveness for 50-50 balls and sustaining defensive intensity for four quarters instead of three helped the Lady Toppers make a shift it hopes to keep up in Texas.

“We’re just more locked in, we’re more focused, more determined and more deliberate with things we do on the court,” Creech said. “We’re really focusing on defense and boxing out. It feels like we’ve been working on defense and boxing out for three years. This whole conference season, it’s been pounded and pounded so it’s finally starting to show on the court.”{&end}