The Western Kentucky women’s basketball team hung tough with its Power Five foe in its season opener, but was unable to come out on top.

Purdue outscored the Lady Toppers 22-14 in the third quarter Wednesday at E.A. Diddle Arena to pull away before finishing off a 79-69 victory.

“Three trips in a row we left 3-point shooters. We didn’t get them off the 3-point line and they hit those 3s. That’s when the lead expanded,” WKU head coach Greg Collins said. “I also felt like they did a better job rebounding than we did in the second half – in the first half I felt like we were doing a decent job of boxing out and getting those boards and that kept us in the game.”

Despite some nerves to start, WKU (0-1) went into halftime down just 33-31 against its Big Ten opponent, but third-quarter struggles proved costly for the Lady Toppers. The Boilermakers (1-0) were up 44-39, before connecting on 3-pointers on three straight possessions to take a 12-point lead. Madison Layden made the first two and Brooke Moore capped off the stretch.

“We left them wide open at the 3-point line,” WKU senior guard Meral Abdelgawad said. “I think that they made a lot at the 3-point line in the third quarter, so that made us not get back into the game.”

WKU also held a slight rebounding advantage in the first half, but was outrebounded 12-7 in the third while shooting just 1-for-5 (20%) from the 3-point line after connecting on some timely shots from deep in the first half to keep things close.

The Lady Toppers entered the final quarter down 55-45, and Purdue extended its lead to as many as 17 at 65-48 with 5:49 to play. WKU battled back to get as close as eight on two occasions – once on two free throws from Abdelgawad with 1:13 to play, and again with a putback by Jaylin Foster with 34 seconds to play – but the deficit was too much to overcome and the Boilermakers claimed a 79-69 victory in the opener.

“I think bottom line is this team’s going to be good, period,” Collins said. “Right now we’re suffering some deficiencies or some mistakes that are just from experience and we played a little hurried – you can play fast and not be hurried – so once we calmed down a little bit and we moved the ball, we’ll be faster and we make better shot decisions, we’ll be better, and when we guard – we’re already guarding hard and we’re rotating fast, but we’re putting our hands on people too quickly.

“Those are little things. When we clean those things up, this team’s going to be fun to watch and they’re going to be a tough out for anybody.”

Abbey Ellis led Purdue with 17 points, including 9-for-10 shooting from the free-throw line, Layden had 13 points and eight rebounds and Jayla Smith had 11 points for the visitors. The Boilermakers are scheduled to host Western Michigan on Sunday at Mackey Arena.

Abdelgawad led WKU with 20 points, Macey Blevins had 11 and Mya Meredith had 10 and seven rebounds, which were tied for a team-high with Foster.

It looked early like WKU might be in for a long night against the Power Five foe, after getting down 11-0 by the 6:46 mark in the first quarter, but WKU’s young team chipped away with an 8-3 run to close the first quarter down just 20-14, before making it a one-possession game at the break.

The Lady Tops outscored Purdue 17-13 in the second period, after cutting their turnovers down and shooting 42.9% from the field after firing just 26.7% in the first quarter, including a start that didn’t include any field goals until nearly six minutes in when Blevins hit a 3-pointer.

WKU closed the half on a 9-3 run, including a layup from Mya Meredith while getting fouled and a 3-pointer from Blevins that cut it to a one-possession game for the first time since the start. Purdue had three free throws to extend its lead back to six, but a free throw from Meredith, plus an and-one from the freshman out of Taylor Mill with 1.7 seconds left on the clock, made it 33-31 at the break.

“There was a lot of nerves in the first quarter and you could just see that,” Collins said. “Really, I know the girls felt like the tempo – we were our own worst enemy tonight. Purdue’s a great team, but we can’t foul as much as we fouled and turn the ball over as much as we turned it over and still think we’re going to get an up-tempo game.”

The Lady Toppers are next scheduled to travel to Manhattan, Kan., for the Preseason WNIT, where they will play three games in four days, starting with a 4 p.m. matchup against North Carolina A&T. WKU will also play host Kansas State on Sunday and UT Martin on Monday in the event.