After nearly a month of on-the-court frustrations, the Western Kentucky women’s basketball team finally have a little bit of confidence as it embarks on a two-game Conference USA road trip to Sam Houston and Louisiana Tech this week. WKU will play at Sam Houston at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday before facing preseason conference favorite Louisiana Tech 2 p.m. on Saturday.

WKU (5-10 overall, 1-3 Conference USA) heads on the road fresh off its first conference win of the season, a victory against UTEP that snapped a four-game skid that included a pair of last-minute losses. That victory came at a good time for a team that continues to try to build towards playing its best basketball come March.

“It gives you energy,” WKU coach Greg Collins said. “It reaffirms your work, your heart, your effort. I keep saying you just stick to the process – keep coming in and doing the work – but at some point you want the fruits of your labor. That helped a whole lot to be able to come into practice (on Monday) and have that energy coming off a win as opposed to a disappointing loss. We’ve had a handful of those where we felt like we were in a spot to win, played well enough to win, but didn’t get the win. It was nice to be able to come in and feel like you accomplished your goal.”

The key to Saturday’s win was rebounding. UTEP is the best rebounding team in Conference USA, but WKU – which was outrebounded 41-15 in a loss to New Mexico State two days prior – managed to outrebound the Miners 41-39. WKU improved to 4-1 this season when outrebounding its opponent.

Collins said the team spent Monday going over the film against UTEP, specifically the success on the glass.

“We are getting ready to play one of the best teams in the country in generating steals (in Sam Houston),” Collins said. “That is some place we have traditionally been and we’re not getting those possessions, so we have to do a great job on the boards. The film edit we watched on ourselves was us boxing out. That’s what we didn’t do against New Mexico State. That’s what we have to continue to do for us to be successful. We have to keep people off the boards and make shots.”

Sam Houston and Louisiana Tech are both in the middle of the pack in the conference in overall rebounding, but are two of the better offensive rebounding teams with Sam Houston second and Louisiana Tech fourth in conference.

“Just like UTEP, they’ve got players that fly to the boards,” Collins said. “If you try to box someone out with like a crossing guard stop, that’s not going to work. It’s going to have to be a contest. It’s going to be a physical contest for who gets to the ball first. With a lot of their players, you don’t want to get into a foot race to the ball. We have to make sure we are doing our job – simple, old-fashioned basketball boxing someone out.”

Both teams also bring plenty of experience, which will test a WKU team that is 2-6 on the road this year – including losses at Jacksonville State and Kennesaw State to open conference play.

“Sam Houston has got seven seniors,” Collins said. “They’ve got as many returners as anybody in our conference. They are playing really confidently, really well and had a great win on the road at Liberty. We have to take care of the ball. They are really aggressive in transition and on defense. We have to get the ball down the floor and we have to make shots. We have to be strong with the ball and want to get to the free-throw line. If we can do those things – and transition defense – we have a shot at it.”