Lady Tops fall short against MTSU in CUSA semifinals
Published 7:16 am Saturday, March 15, 2025
Western Kentucky senior guard Alexis Mead looks to pass against Middle Tennessee during the Lady Toppers' 71-63 loss Friday in the Conference USA Women's Basketball Tournament semifinals at VBC Propst Arena in Huntsville, Alabama. (WKU ATHLETICS)
Western Kentucky senior guard Alexis Mead (left) and junior forward Josie Gilvin celebrate a play against Middle Tennessee during the Lady Toppers' 71-63 loss Friday in the Conference USA Women's Basketball Tournament semifinals at VBC Propst Arena in Huntsville, Alabama. (WKU ATHLETICS)
Western Kentucky women's basketball coach Greg Collins and the WKU bench look on during the Lady Toppers' 71-63 loss Friday against Middle Tennessee in the Conference USA Women's Basketball Tournament semifinals at VBC Propst Arena in Huntsville, Alabama. (WKU ATHLETICS)
Western Kentucky junior forward Zsofia Telegdy looks to pass against Middle Tennessee during the Lady Toppers' 71-63 loss Friday in the Conference USA Women's Basketball Tournament semifinals at VBC Propst Arena in Huntsville, Alabama. (WKU ATHLETICS)
Western Kentucky graduate senior guard Destiny Salary looks on against Middle Tennessee during the Lady Toppers' 71-63 loss Friday in the Conference USA Women's Basketball Tournament semifinals at VBC Propst Arena in Huntsville, Alabama. (WKU ATHLETICS)
Western Kentucky graduate senior guard Destiny Salary (left) drives in the lane against Middle Tennessee during the Lady Toppers' 71-63 loss Friday in the Conference USA Women's Basketball Tournament semifinals at VBC Propst Arena in Huntsville, Alabama. (WKU ATHLETICS)
Western Kentucky sophomore guard Mackenzie Chatfield (left) looks for an opening against Middle Tennessee during the Lady Toppers' 71-63 loss Friday in the Conference USA Women's Basketball Tournament semifinals at VBC Propst Arena in Huntsville, Alabama. (WKU ATHLETICS)
Western Kentucky junior forward Josie Gilvin looks for an opening against Middle Tennessee during the Lady Toppers' 71-63 loss Friday in the Conference USA Women's Basketball Tournament semifinals at VBC Propst Arena in Huntsville, Alabama. (WKU ATHLETICS)
Western Kentucky players gather on the sideline during the Lady Toppers' 71-63 loss to Middle Tennessee on Friday in the Conference USA Women's Basketball Tournament semifinals at VBC Propst Arena in Huntsville, Alabama. (WKU ATHLETICS)
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Jalynn Gregory found some space, just enough to shoot down Western Kentucky’s sky-high hopes in Rocket City on Friday night.
The Middle Tennessee senior guard had been a marked player by the Lady Toppers through much of Friday’s Conference USA Women’s Basketball Tournament semifinal at VBC Propst Center and for the most part had been held in check.
But in the fourth quarter, Gregory got free — after hitting just one 3-pointer through three quarters, the league’s top shooter from that distance buried three in the fourth, giving the Blue Raiders separation for a 71-63 victory.
“A lot of credit goes to Jalynn Gregory — she made some big shots down the stretch where they separated the game,” WKU coach Greg Collins said. “Their defense was strong. We did a good job down to about the last two minutes — we made some costly errors.”
Third-seeded WKU (23-9) led for large swaths of the game against No. 2 seed MTSU (26-7), but was outscored 22-12 in the fourth.
The Lady Toppers led 51-49 heading into that final period and extended that advantage to five points when Zsofia Telegdy hit a 3-pointer from the corner. The Blue Raiders answered with a five-point run to knot the game at 54-all.
Mead hit a layup to push the Lady Tops ahead — MTSU answered with a basket.
Gregory hit her first 3-pointer of the quarter to give the Blue Raiders their first lead since the start of the second quarter — Mead came right back with a matching 3-pointer for WKU to tie the game again at 59-all with 2:24 to play.
The next two field goals belonged to Gregory — the first a 3-pointer off another ball screen from the top of the key that pushed MTSU ahead for the final time with 2:02 left, then a fatal 3 from the corner that made it a six-point lead for the Blue Raiders with just 36 seconds to play.
The Lady Tops twice trimmed that lead to four points, but never got closer as the fell short of returning to the CUSA championship for the first time since 2023. The Blue Raiders were set to make their third straight appearance in Saturday’s title game against top seed Liberty.
“Twice, we went under the ball screen,” Collins said of Gregory’s fourth-quarter 3s. “She’s a great shooter. She was 1-for-4 heading into that quarter and she hit the last three 3s that she had looks at. We went twice going under ball screens, and then the last time we just lost her in the corner. We weren’t aware, we weren’t paying attention. Those were some costly mistakes. We had done a pretty good job defensively I felt like throughout the game, but what we’ve been talking about is finish the job. I felt like we’ve played really good stretches, really good quarters. We just need to finish the job and this time we played a pretty good 38 minutes.
“Credit to them — she’s a senior and she’s the best 3-point shooter in our conference and she stepped up a key moment.”
The Lady Tops pushed out to a 16-9 lead in the first quarter, but the Blue Raiders answered with an 8-0 spurt and led 19-18 after one.
WKU ripped off a 9-0 run in the second quarter, highlighted by Mead’s four-point play after she got fouled on a made 3-pointer and hit the ensuing free throw, and led 30-21 with 5:16 left in the half.
MTSU surged back to knot the score, but the Lady Tops had a 37-34 halftime lead after Mariama Sow drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the key with eight seconds left before halftime.
An even third quarter ended with a bit of momentum for the Blue Raiders when Ta’Mia Scott scored on a buzzer-beating layup to get her team within two points heading into the fourth.
Scott had 17 points to lead five MTSU players in double-digit scoring. Gregory finished with 16 points, Savannah Davis had 13 points, Anastasiia Boldyreva tallied a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds and Courtney Blakely also had 10 points.
Mead, who was briefly sidelined when she was hit on the facemask protecting her broken nose, scored a game-high 19 points to lead the Lady Toppers.
“This team was special,” Mead said. “We put in an immense amount of work during the offseason and during the season. It wasn’t just hopes — we had a plan. Even though tonight didn’t go the way we wanted it to, we know we put in the work to be where we are right now. Honestly, I was just thankful to be here.”
Josie Gilvin tallied a double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds for WKU, along with three assists and three steals. Destiny Salary had 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists, and Mackenzie Chatfield also scored 10 points and had four assists.
“On our end, on the offensive end, we made some mistakes,” Collins said. “We took some shots, we made some turnovers, we didn’t get some good looks that we got in the first half. Defensively, we just made some little mistakes. We had some errors in our zone — they got a layup underneath on us, they got a couple 3s. But then really it was that late run when Gregory hit those 3s behind the screen and then in the wing.
” … We never flinched — they never flinched, either.”
