Western Kentucky followed a formula that has been working in Conference USA men’s basketball the past couple seasons.

The Hilltoppers went on the road and split a pair of games with a 80-64 loss to New Mexico State claiming a 68-56 win at UTEP on Saturday.

That’s just one part of the formula, though. On the other side of the equation, the home team has to defend its home court to have a shot a winning a CUSA championship. That’s the job for WKU (10-6 overall, 3-2 CUSA) starting with Wednesday night’s 6:30 p.m. matchup against league newcomer Missouri State at E.A. Diddle Arena. Wednesday’s game, which will be live streamed on ESPN+, is the first of three straight league home games for the Hilltoppers with Kennesaw State coming in Saturday and Liberty next Wednesday.

The Tops are 2-0 in CUSA home games so far this season, a trend WKU coach Hank Plona very much desires to continue during this three-game stretch at Diddle. CUSA teams are a combined 23-7 in home league games this season, which ranks atop NCAA Division !.

“You want to try to take care of home court, I think everybody does,” Plona said. “ … It seems like the way to win the league is you take care of business at home and you go about .500 on the road.”

Missouri State (10-6, 4-1 CUSA) has found immediate success in its first season in conference. Led by veteran coach Cuonzo Martin, the Bears have managed to swipe one road conference win against Delaware State but are otherwise pedestrian with a 1-4 record away from home.

Plona remains wary.

“Obviously sitting here in a decent spot with a couple home games here in a row,” Plona said. “We have a very good and a team that’s off to a great start in Missouri State coming in here tomorrow night. They’ve gotten better and better as the season goes on and we’ve certainly got our work cut out for us.”

The Hilltoppers shuffled their starting lineup after last week’s blowout loss at New Mexico State, when WKU found itself in a 21-2 deficit early in the latest of a troubling trend of slow starts. For Saturday’s win at UTEP, Plona benched regular starters Teagan Moore and Grant Newell. Moore, a redshirt sophomore guard and the team’s leading scorer, came off the bench to score a team-high 19 points against the Miners.

“Teagan and Grant are two of our best players and I think the world of them,” Plona said. “They didn’t do anything wrong other than they were the two constants it seems like in the slow starts that we’ve had all year. They’re two of our best players for sure. We can’t dig ourselves a 21-2 hole.”

WKU is also still incorporating graduate senior guard Terrion Murdix back into the lineup after the was sidelined eight games after suffering a knee injury during the Tops’ trip to the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis multi-team event.

Murdix came off the bench to steady the Tops against New Mexico State, then got the start against UTEP. Plona said Murdix, who he often describes as a “pure point guard,” is vital to the Tops’ success this season. With the Springfield, Illinois, native back in action, his teammates can shift back to “their natural roles that we intended for them and build from there.”

“His statistics don’t matter, he doesn’t care about them,” Plona said. “He plays to win and he has more experience winning than a lot of guys on our team combined. This is his fifth year playing, he’s been on seven teams. You add up the wins of the teams he’s been on in his career, it’s a lot of wins.”

Missouri State is led by a pair of NCAA Division II transfers, senior forward Keith Palek III (17.5 points per game) and junior guard Kobi Williams (14.1 ppg). Plona describes Missouri State’s 6-foot-4, 280-pound forward Michael Osei-Bonsu as “a tank” rolling through the interior lane.

“They kind of play a unique style in that they’ll do a lot of post-ups, a lot of backdowns, their five man will bring the ball up, a lot of screens for anybody,” Plona said. “They’re a tough-minded, physical defensive team like most teams in our league. So defensively I’d say it’s a little similar to what a lot of teams do. But offensively, it’s unique.”

Unique is how Plona describes the following two opponents as well, with high-scoring Kennesaw State (88.9 points per game, tops in CUSA) and methodical Liberty looming next. It’s a challenge, Plona admits, just like the rest of the conference season.

“All of this is stressful for me,” Plona said. “There’s not a lot of days where I feel calm, relaxed and happy around January. But I don’t think it’s really stressful for the guys, just so you know. I think they’re in the moment. I don’t want them to think about all that, to be honest with you. I want them to think about who we are, what we need to do to get better. Anytime you start thinking about the opponent too much, we seem to struggle. And anytime we think about what we need to do and how we need to play and how we need to improve, we seem to get a lot better.”