By MICHEAL COMPTON / micheal.compton@bgdailynews.com

It was a mixed bag kind of night for the Western Kentucky women’s basketball team in Tuesday’s 70-48 exhibition win over Lee University at E.A. Diddle Arena.

Trying to integrate nine new players into the roster, WKU had some early struggles on the offensive end but found some sparks on the defensive end to get going and close strong for the win.

WKU coach Greg Collins said the game allowed his staff, and the players, to learn a lot about this team heading into Monday’s regular-season opener at Indiana State.

“That’s what you want – you want some things to be exposed, you want some things you gotta fix and continue to work,” Collins said. “I told the girls in the huddle after the game, we talked about our biggest objective other than team chemistry is making sure we get better every day. Making sure we get better at practice. Making sure whether it’s a scrimmage or an exhibition, that we are getting better.

“I told them before shoot-around this morning, I’d rather win by five and get better than win by 25 and feel like we didn’t learn anything. I felt like there was improvement in players from the first quarter to the fourth quarter.”

WKU scored the opening basket of the game, but was ice cold from the field for most of the first quarter. The Lady Toppers went 1-for-13 from the field in an eight-minute stretch, trailing 9-4, before a steal and subsequent three-point play from Alexis Mead got the offense going with a seven-point surge that pulled WKU within 12-11 late in the quarter.

The Lady Toppers wrestled the lead away for good in the second quarter, with a 16-2 run to close the half and build a 29-18 lead.

“I think it was a testament to us having nine new girls,” Mead said of the slow start. “We’re still getting comfortable with each other when playing in an actual game. I think you saw that, like coach said, we got better as the quarters went along. It’s just showing that we’re getting more comfortable with each other as we play more with each other.”

Destiny Salary scored to open the second half to make the score 31-18, but Lee was able to hang around – keeping it within 45-37 after three quarters.

Zsofia Telegdy helped WKU get some distance with a pair of 3s during a 12-3 run to open the final quarter – making the score 57-40. The lead continued to grow from there, with Tia Shelling’s layup in the final minute providing the final margin of victory.

“It started out a little shaky, but once we let go of the anxiety or I don’t know what it was you could tell we got more comfortable with each other,” Telegdy said.

Mead led WKU with 14 points. Telegdy added 12 points in her unofficial debut. The 6-foot-3 Kansas transfer combined with fellow 6-3 newcomer Mariama Sow to give WKU a nice post rotation that was lacking last season. Sow finished with nine points.

“(What) they give us other than size is that they both have a great shooting touch,” Collins said. “They are not always gonna make their shots, but you saw Marianna make 3s and you saw Zsofia make 3s. There are things we can do to improve their effectiveness around the rim, but they are not bad there. And they are both getting better on defense. They both got in trouble for not rebounding, but that is something we are working on.”

Mackenzie Chatfield rounded out the double-digit scorers, finishing with 10 points.

WKU shot 37.3% from the field, but was 14-for-31 in the second half. The Lady Toppers outrebounded Lee 42-34, with every WKU player that played grabbing at least one rebound. Josie Gilvin led the way with seven rebounds, while Salary and Salma Khedr added five rebounds each.

“We did a better job boxing out, but there are times where it looked like we were leaving Halloween candy on the floor,” Collins said. “We’ve got to get better at that. We got some good film. Lee is going to do really well. They’ve got seniors. They are poised. They can shoot. They are a good team and they gave us a great game.”

WKU forced 23 turnovers – including 16 steals – leading to 28 points in transition.

“Coach always says we have to disrupt, disrupt, disrupt,” Mead said. “That is always our game plan. We did a good (job) of that tonight, but we know we can always do better.”

WKU will play at Indiana State at 6 p.m. on Monday.