Plona gets first win as Hilltoppers’ head coach

Published 11:15 pm Tuesday, November 12, 2024

by Jeff Nations

By JEFF NATIONS / jeff.nations@bgdailynews.com

Hank Plona has a strong and proven record of coaching winning basketball.

In eight seasons as the head men’s basketball coach at Indian Hills (Iowa) Community College, Plona won 225 games and lost only 35.

But heading into Tuesday night’s home matchup against Campbellsville at E.A. Diddle Arena, the first-year Western Kentucky men’s basketball coach was still searching for his first NCAA Division I win.

Third time’s the charm, as the Hilltoppers rolled to a 104-76 win against the NAIA-level Tigers and secure that first D1 victory for their head coach after close losses against rugged opponents Wichita State and Grand Canyon.

“Good to get a win,” Plona said. “Not sure last Monday night we played well enough to beat a Wichita State team that’s very good. On Saturday at Grand Canyon, we played well enough for most of that game to beat a GCU team that’s very good, and obviously that left a tough taste in our mouth.

“It was good to get back on the floor a couple days later and, certainly on the offensive side, to play pretty well, build some confidence, get a win and start building some momentum for what could be a special season for us.”

Against the undersized Tigers, WKU (1-2) got a career night from graduate senior guard Khristian Lander, who scored a game-high 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting. Lander and freshman guard Julius Thedford combined to hit 10 of the Tops’ 16 made 3-pointers — each hit five treys in the win.

It was the second big outing for Lander against Campbellsville (4-2) — last season, he scored a game-high 22 points in the Tops’ 101-77 win.

“It was really nothing about Campbellsville themselves,” Lander said. “It was just me continuing to shoot the ball. They kept not closing out hard enough, so I feel like I just had to catch and shoot and they were falling tonight.”

Lander’s hot start helped WKU build a 49-32 halftime lead, with the Evansville, Indiana, native already tallying 16 points by the break.

The Tigers, who came into the game averaging more than nine made 3s per game, started to find their shooting touch from that range in the second half. An 11-0 run by the Tigers, with a trio of 3-pointers during that stretch, prompted Plona to take a timeout with 12:59 to play and his team’s lead down to 62-49.

“I thought out of the timeout we refocused a little bit,” Plona said. “We had a drive-and-kick 3, Tyrone (Marshall Jr.) passed to Julius for a 3 in the corner. It kind of stopped the run and then I thought our defense led to offense.”

The Tops mixed in some full-court pressure to take the Tigers out of rhythm, but it was still a 10-point game after Cobe Penny’s made free throw with 11:23 to go.

WKU answered with a decisive 11-0 run capped by back-to-back 3s from Thedford.

“My confidence is through the roof,” Thedford said. “I’m not shy at all. I’m not scared to play. I’m going to guard, defend, rebound — just be a dog all around.”

Plona was generally happy with his team’s shot selection from 3-point range as the Tops tried to stick with shooting in rhythm.

“We were able to get some drive-and-kick 3s,” Plona said. “We’ve been emphasizing trying to touch the paint and then catch-and-shoot 3s. In the first two games, we were 12-for-31 on catch-and-shoot 3s and we were 2-for-16 on 3s off the dribble. So if you saw me react to a couple of 3-point shots, the ones off the dribble, tonight I bet we were 1-for-5 maybe and I bet that we were something like 15-for-27 (on catch-and-shoot 3s).

” … I want them to shoot every catch-and-shoot 3 that they get because I think even when we’re struggling to shoot, we’re shooting 40% on those.”

The game featured 29 made 3s in all, with Campbellsville hitting 13 of 31 from beyond the arc. Penny led the Tigers with 15 points, Dalton Kramer had 12 points and Marcellus Vail added 11.

WKU was 16 of 32 on 3-pointers.

“I’d say on our end, hitting 3s was the ideal thing that we wanted but giving up 3s wasn’t,” Lander said. “We try to limit those, but they hit some shots and we had to play harder defense for them to miss some shots, turn them over.”

Marshall had a productive all-around game, scoring 12 points while adding five rebounds, five assists and three steals. WKU forward Babacar Faye just missed a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds, Enoch Kalambay had 10 points and seven boards, and Jalen Jackson tallied a team-high eight assists — the Tops had 27 assists in total, with just five turnovers.

WKU remains home for its next game with Lipscomb coming into Diddle Arena for a 2 p.m. matchup.

About Jeff Nations

Sports Editor, Bowling Green Daily News

email author More by Jeff

More Sports

WKU sweeps Liberty to claim sixth straight regular-season title

Hilltoppers host Bulldogs in high-stakes CUSA game

Madueño Pita inks with Lady Toppers

Lady Toppers announce pair of signees

Print Article