After getting back on track with a pair of wins at home last week, the Western Kentucky women’s basketball team begins a tough final stretch when it plays at Conference USA leader Middle Tennessee at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

WKU (17-6 overall, 8-3 Conference USA) snapped the Blue Raiders’ 33-game conference win streak with a 63-58 win in Bowling Green last month, but now must face a team that hasn’t missed a beat since. MTSU is a perfect 10-0 at home, only adding to the challenge.

“Middle Tennessee still has the most experience – and (it is) winning experience,” WKU coach Greg Collins said. “The experience of playing in big games. The experience of playing in (the NCAA) tournament, winning conference championships. We had a lot of teams that return a lot. They return maybe the most valuable asset, which is experience at winning at a high level.”

Middle Tennessee (18-5, 10-1) boasts the best defense in the conference, a defense that has only gotten better since the CUSA schedule began. MTSU gives up 52.2 points a game overall, with the total dropping to 45 a game in conference play.

MTSU has held opponents under 50 points in nine out of 11 conference games, three times holding opponents under 40 points.

“As much as you talk about their ability to score… but really they are a great defensive team,” Collins said. “They are able to control the pace of the game with their defense. We’ve got to play great defense. We’ve got to take care of the ball. That is something we did well here. We took care of the ball, but we are still going to have to put points on the board. If we are having a hard time making shots or taking care of the ball, that makes that challenge increasingly more difficult.”

WKU had the best showing by a conference opponent in last month’s win at Diddle Arena. The Lady Toppers rallied from 14 down in the first half, nine at halftime, by outscoring the Blue Raiders 38-24 in the second half.

Josie Gilvin scored 10 of her team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter to clinch WKU’s first win over MTSU in almost three years and offset a 25-point night from Ta’Mia Scott – who was just named conference player of the week after scoring a career-high 30 points in a 60-43 win against Jacksonville State last week.

“We did a lot of positive things,” Collins said. “There were several breakdowns. Ta’Mia Scott did a great job of attacking us, getting to the basket and she had a great game offensively. It’s hard to keep all of them from scoring at the same time. We have to make sure we are doing a good job of defensive rebounding. We can’t let them have three or four chances and we have to make sure in that time and score situation we know who they are going to look to. We have to minimize those opportunities.”

Saturday begins a tough final stretch for WKU, which closes with road games in five out of its final seven. In addition to Saturday’s trip to Middle Tennessee, WKU still has road dates at Liberty, Louisiana Tech and Florida International – all three currently in the top half of the conference standings.

“We’ve got some tough road trips ahead of us, but right now we have to focus on Saturday,” Collins said. “Then we will turn around and focus on the next weekend. Everybody had to play the same number of road games and home games. It is just that ours are sort of leaned towards the end of the season.”