By JEFF NATIONS / jeff.nations@bgdailynews.com

Western Kentucky’s men’s basketball team ventures on the road for the first time this season Saturday night as the Hilltoppers visit Phoenix to face Grand Canyon.

The Antelopes, like WKU, are coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance and present a formidable test for the Tops in Saturday night’s 7 p.m. game at Global Credit Union Arena.

Grand Canyon opened its season with an 89-79 home win against Cal State Fullerton on Monday despite missing two projected starters from the lineup. Coached by Bryce Drew, the Antelopes finished 30-5 last season, earned a No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament and won a first-round game against fifth-seeded Saint Mary’s.

“They have very, very talented players,” WKU first-year head coach Hank Plona said. “They play a lot of one-on-one basketball, from what I remember a year ago. They try to put guys in space and empower them to make plays. Obviously we’re expecting a very raucous environment down there and we’re going against a team that made the Round of 32. It’ll be a heck of a challenge for us.”

WKU (0-1) opened its season with a 91-84 loss Monday to Wichita State at E.A. Diddle Arena. It was a competitive game, but the Shockers’ superior shooting from 3-point range (11-of-27, compared to the Tops’ 6-of-25 showing) largely proved the difference.

It was the second straight outing of subpar long-range shooting for the Tops, who went 5-of-25 from 3-point range in an 88-79 charity exhibition home loss to UAB on Oct. 27.

“We didn’t shoot the ball very well, and when you don’t shoot the ball great, teams kind of collapse,” Plona said of the loss to Wichita State. “And when all of a sudden as a team we’re not making 3-point shots at the rate we hope to, I think there’s a lot more help defense and obviously some of those other guys want to try to get to the basket and there wasn’t really space to do so.

“We’ve got to figure out how to move the defense and multiple passes is probably part of it – passing and cutting and moving and shifting to kind of open up some driving lanes, to hopefully get paint touches and then either score at the rim or get some driving and kick-outs.”

The opening loss to the Shockers still provided plenty of encouraging signs for WKU, starting with the continued strong play of senior forward Babacar Faye, who scored a career-high 28 points to surpass his previous career best of 15 – he scored 20 points in the exhibition matchup against the Blazers.

“It’s confidence building,” Faye said. “Coach Hank puts a lot of trust in me, the team puts a lot of trust in me. He’s just telling me to go on and execute and just play your best, so I’m just here to do everything I can to help this team be successful.”

Faye, a 6-foot-8 forward, logged additional minutes and at times had to play the post with 6-11 senior forward/center Blaise Keita sidelined after bruising his knee in practice. Plona wasn’t sure Keita would be available to play Saturday as he continues to recover.

“When he’s the biggest guy out there on our team, he’s technically playing the five,” Plona said. “He’s not really a center, so I think he can use his quickness and driving ability. I think he took one 3 tonight, but he’s worked on his shot in a way where he’s very comfortable using that shot fake. We’re optimistic that you’ll see his ability to shoot a little bit. We don’t want him shooting a million jump shots, but obviously with these two games I would think a scouting report would be a little more focused on him moving forward and he’s going to have to make some adjustments.

“But at the same time, he’s been getting to the rim, getting to the free-throw line – he’s certainly been playing with a determination on offense.”

WKU senior point guard Don McHenry, a returning first-team All-Conference USA pick and the team’s leading scorer from last season, provided a 21-point outing in the opener and the Tops got a late lift from true freshman guard Julius Thedford, who scored 11 points in his collegiate debut.

Grand Canyon got a monster performance from 6-8 senior forward JaKobe Coles, a transfer from TCU, against the Titans on Monday. Coles posted a double-double with 26 points and 13 rebounds, while senior guard Ray Harrison scored 21 to eclipse 2,000 career points and move into sixth place among active NCAA Division I players with 2,012 career points.

GRAND REUNION

Plona will be happy to see a former player from his days as the head coach at Indian Hills Community College, especially since the Tops won’t have to face him Saturday.

Graduate senior Tyon Foster-Grant, a 6-7 guard and the reigning WAC Player of the Year after averaging 20.1 points and 6.1 rebounds last year for the Antelopes, is sitting out the second of two games after regaining his college eligibility following his withdrawal as an early entrant for the 2024 NBA Draft.

Foster-Grant, who played from 2018-20 for Plona at Indian Hills, has made a remarkable recovery after suffering a major health scare earlier in his career. After playing a season at Kansas following his stint at Indian Hills, Foster-Grant transferred to DePaul for the 2021-22 season. In his first game with the Blue Demons, Foster-Grant collapsed in the locker room at halftime and had to be resuscitated three times for what was later diagnosed as an irregular heart beat.

Multiple heart surgeries followed, with Foster-Grant ended up missing the rest of that season and the next before restarting his college career last season at Grand Canyon.

“He’s a special person,” Plona said. “I don’t know, still to this day probably every seven to 10 days we talk. He’s always been a unique and special one in my eyes. When I watched him play the summer going into his freshman year in college, I thought he was the one now – he was that kid that, man, oozed potential and has an upbeat attitude and positivity. I’ve always thought from the moment that we got him six years ago, he has a chance to be an NBA player. And he is an elite person and he’s grown through it all.

“Some of the stuff that he’s gone through, most guys … talk about putting their head down, man, they’d struggle to keep going or they’d say why me. And man, he is a strong-willed, upbeat, positive young man. I think the world of him. He’s family to me and especially since it sounds like he’s not playing, I’m looking forward to seeing him.”

ON THE MOVE

WKU’s matchup against Grand Canyon is part of the CUSA/WAC scheduling initiative. The two-year arrangement between the conferences, now in its second year, provides each school with one home and one away game against a team from the opposing conference. WKU won both its games last year, on the road at Cal Baptist and at home against Abilene Christian.

This season, the Tops get the road game against the Antelopes and then host Seattle on Dec. 17 at Diddle.

If the initiative is extended past this season, Grand Canyon won’t be a part of it. Less than six months after announcing plans to leave the WAC to join the West Coast Conference, GCU changed course on Nov. 1 and announced it has accepted an invitation to join the Mountain West Conference starting in July 2025.