The Western Kentucky women’s basketball team continues its homestand, hosting Louisiana Tech for Education Day on Thursday at 11 a.m. at E.A. Diddle Arena.

The annual event creates a unique gameday environment with thousands of kids from area schools attending the game and cheering loudly — sometimes even when there is a break in the action.

WKU coach Greg Collins said his team and staff look forward to the atmosphere and the chance to interact with the community.

“It’s a great day for all the kids,” Collins said. “I tell our players you never know which kid might get a chance to see you or have an interaction with you and it might motivate them — maybe athletically, but maybe something that carries over to their academics as well. We are always excited to have the kids come in here. It’s a different atmosphere. Sometimes the timeouts are even louder than the game, but that’s fun. It’s fun for the kids to be here. We appreciate all the effort it takes for the school system to get them here and all the extra facility people that have to be here. It creates a fun environment and I know our players love playing in it.”

Thursday’s crowd will see a WKU team that is riding a high — winning three straight games, including a 63-58 victory over Middle Tennessee on Saturday. WKU rallied in that game from 14 down with a strong fourth quarter to snap MTSU’s CUSA-record 33 game conference win streak.

The strong finish was a welcome sight for WKU, which struggled at times with finishing games last season.

“Last year at the end of the season we had several games that we kind of let get away from us,” Collins said. “I feel like this year there is a lot more presence of mind. It’s something we work on regularly in practice. We play three minutes games where you have to manage the clock and understand the time and clock. We do those and review those decisions. I feel like they are getting better and better at understanding those kind of situations.”

WKU (12-5 overall, 3-2 Conference USA) is also taking advantage of increased depth in comparison to last season, with the bench providing huge minutes in Saturday’s win. Caleigh Rose-West came off the bench to score a career-high 10 points — most coming in the first half to help keep WKU within striking distance. Mackenzie Chatfield was steady in the fourth quarter with starting point guard Alexis Mead on the bench with four fouls. Salma Khedr, Mariama Sow and Mya Pratcher also provided some quality minutes that helped fuel the WKU victory.

Collins said he thinks the roster, which featured nine newcomers to start the season, is starting to come together.

“They are continuing to grow and learn and just kind of find their footing,” Collins said. “That is what you want to happen when you add a bunch of new faces to a team. It takes some time for that to jell. They are finding their footing and getting more comfortable.”

WKU faces a Louisiana Tech team that is 11-6 overall, 4-2 in conference play. Four players average more than 11 points a game, led by graduate guard Robyn Lee (13.4 ppg). Louisiana Tech is 10-1 in Ruston, but 1-5 away from home.

“Louisiana Tech is as gritty and tough as anybody in our conference,” Collins said. “It will be a tough-fought game. They’ve got a young team, but they are just gritty and tough. They will be somewhere between a Middle Tennessee and an FIU in their grittiness. They don’t have the size as Middle obviously, but they are going to fight and be tough defensively. It will be a challenge.”

WKU will wrap up the homestand Saturday, hosting Sam Houston State at 2 p.m.