Lady Toppers roll to fifth straight win

Published 11:05 pm Saturday, January 25, 2025

by Micheal Compton

It was a rare conference laugher for the Western Kentucky women’s basketball team, which rolled to a fifth straight win with an 82-49 victory over Sam Houston on Saturday at E.A. Diddle Arena.

WKU (14-5 overall, 5-2 Conference USA) used a balanced offensive attack and a suffocating defense to overwhelm Sam Houston and pick up its largest conference victory since FIU 101-47 on Jan. 18, 2018.

“It felt really good to have all five of us on the same page from the jump, just doing what we do best,” WKU junior guard Josie Gilvin said. “I think talking on the floor is what made it easy to go on those runs and keep that tempo the whole game.”

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WKU never trailed, using a 12-2 run at the end of the first quarter to build a 22-10 advantage.

Sam Houston (8-10, 1-7) opened the second quarter with a 9-2 spurt to cut the deficit to five before WKU took complete control. The Lady Toppers closed with 23-3 run, including the final 13 points, to go into the locker room with a commanding 47-22 advantage.

The lead continued to grow in the second half as the shot continued to fall. WKU led 65-31 after a basket from Mya Pratcher late in the third quarter, with the Lady Toppers leading by as many as 35 in the fourth quarter.

“We had a good lead early and then they kind of made a little run and shortened it up,” WKU coach Greg Collins said. “I was proud of them coming out of the locker room. We talked about some things at halftime and they came out and stay focused throughout that third quarter and maintained a better level of consistency.”

Mackenzie Chatfield led the way with her first career double-double — 13 points and 10 assists — filling in for Acacia Hayes, who was unavailable for Saturday’s game.

“The numbers are nice, but at the end of the day the wins are even nicer,” Chatfield said. “I’m just glad we could do it all together. So many people stepped up today.”

Gilvin added 12 points and eight rebounds, while Zsofia Telegdy had 11 points and seven boards. Destiny Salary finished with 10 points, Alexis Mead had nine points and five assists, with Caleigh Rose-West also scoring nine points. Pratcher and Salma Khedr added eight points each for WKU, which had 23 assists and shot 60% from the field.

The No. 1 thing I’m proud of is that ball movement,” Collins said. “The ball movement is the best that we’ve done in years. We had 23 assists tonight, not because the ball movement was that much better tonight than it was on Thursday or last Saturday. The ball movement was good then too, we just didn’t shoot the ball well. It’s just a lot of unselfish play and that makes a team tough to guard.”

Defensively, WKU forced 30 turnovers that led to a 37-14 advantage in points off turnovers. WKU had 16 steals, four from Pratcher.

“The defensive communication keeps getting better and better and it really shows with that first group,” Collins said. “As long as we play without fouling, and we put them at the free-throw line way too much, the communication on defense and the unselfishness on offense, that is what we are doing a good job of.”

WKU returns to action on Thursday, playing at UTEP at 8 p.m. in the first of a two-game swing. After UTEP, WKU will travel to New Mexico State at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

About Micheal Compton

I am a sports reporter and movie critic for the Bowling Green Daily News.

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