Western Kentucky Lady Toppers Head Basketball Coach Greg Collins talks to junior forward Mya Pratcher (5) as she comes off the court in the Lady Tops’ 88-70 loss to the University of Kentucky Lady Cats at UK’s Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Ky., on Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS

The real season begins for the Western Kentucky women’s basketball team with Thursday’s Conference USA opener against Liberty at 6:30 p.m. at E.A. Diddle Arena.

After a productive nonconference schedule where WKU finished 9-3, the Lady Toppers set sights on improving last year’s 6-10 record in conference play and a predicted fourth place finish in this year’s preseason coaches’ poll.

WKU will get the chance to make a case right away hosting Liberty – picked second in the conference – before hosting Florida International on Saturday. FIU was picked third in the preseason poll.

The Lady Toppers enter off an 88-70 loss at Kentucky on Saturday. In that loss, Kentucky’s size created problems with WKU coach Greg Collins citing interior defense and interior rebounding as things that need to improve heading into conference play.

Opponents are outrebounding WKU by more than four rebounds a game. In the last three games – two losses – WKU is -56 in rebounding margin.

Collins said following the Kentucky loss that rebounding has to get better, pointing out the Lady Toppers were better when they went to a smaller lineup with Josie Gilvin and Mya Pratcher over post players like Zsofia Telegdy and Mariama Sow.

“We are going to get more aggressive,” Collins said. “We are going to get better there or we are going to change. That’s probably the No. 1 thing.

“And then we’ve got to continue to work on rebounding. We work on rebounding all the time.”

Liberty (7-4) will test that rebounding deficiency right away, with the Flames averaging 7.9 more rebounds a game than their opponents.

Liberty has a trio of preseason all-conference selections in 6-foot-6 senior center Bella Smuda, 6-0 senior guard Emma Hess and 5-8 sophomore guard Asia Boone. Smuda averages 12.3 points and 6.4 rebounds with Hess the facilitator and Boone a threat from long distance.

“We are about to get ready to go play a big team (in) Liberty,” WKU guard Destiny Salary said following the loss to Kentucky. “I think this game has helped us and prepared us for what’s to come. It’s something we really need to work on because we talk about it every day. We have to make sure that we are rebounding, make sure we are trying to box out so we can get a couple of extra possessions.”

FIU has the preseason player of the year in 6-2 forward Mya Kone, but Kone has been out since the season opener. In her absence, junior guard Parris Atkins has emerged as the leading scorer – averaging 14.3 points a game.

Aaliyah Pitts, who played the last two seasons at WKU, is also on the FIU roster – appearing in all 11 games with six starts.

Like Liberty, FIU has had success on the boards with a +9.2 rebounding advantage over opponents.

Opening with Liberty and FIU makes for a challenging start to conference play, but senior guard Alexis Mead said the team is ready for the challenge.

“We are going into conference with a lot of confidence, but also a lot of trust in each other on this team,” Mead said.