The Western Kentucky women’s basketball team was its own worst enemy in Thursday’s 55-51 loss to Kennesaw State at E.A. Diddle Arena.

WKU (5-18 overall, 1-11 Conference USA) could not hold a fourth-quarter lead, with Kennesaw State surging in front in the final 90 seconds to spoil an Education Day that featured a crowd of 2,621 – mostly students from across the area.

“Shout out to all the schools, all the teachers, all the bus drivers, all the chaperones to make sure the kids get in,” said WKU head coach Greg Collins. “They look forward to this. We talked all week about the kids are going to bring energy and it was our job to bring energy to the floor. If we put that energy in on the floor, they’ll reflect that energy back to us. I thought our girls did a great job of coming out and playing with some passion and excitement. It was just unfortunate we didn’t play well enough to win the ball game.”

The raucous crowd had plenty to cheer about for most of the day in a tightly contested battle that featured seven ties and 12 lead changes.

WKU led 10-6 early, but Kennesaw State (12-11, 5-7) was able to move in front on a 3-pointer by Keyarah Berry that made the score 16-15 after one quarter. WKU regained a 24-22 advantage on a three-point play by Mya Pratcher with 5:24 left in the half, but went cold from there with a handful of miscues. WKU missed the final seven shots in the half and committed five turnovers, including a steal and layup by Berry that gave the Owls a 25-24 halftime lead.

The Lady Toppers got seven straight points from Zsofia Telegdy early in the third quarter to slip back in front 31-29. WKU’s advantage grew to 37-31 on a steal and layup from Tia Shelling with 4:36 left in the third, before Kennesaw State responded with seven straight to briefly regain the lead.

A 3 from Trinity Rowe and a layup by Torri James gave WKU a 42-38 lead after three, but the Owls opened the fourth with a 6-0 spurt to make the score 44-42.

A 7-2 run pushed the momentum back to WKU, but Kennesaw State responded with four straight to regain a 50-49 advantage. Shelling’s layup with 2:11 remaining gave the lead back to WKU, but the Lady Toppers were unable to score again.

A steal and layup from Berry with 1:22 remaining gave the Owls the lead for good. Berry added another bucket with 39.3 seconds remaining. WKU had two chances to tie, with Telegdy missing a 3 on the first possession and a steal on the next possession allowing Kennesaw State to seal it with a free throw with 1.6 seconds left.

Both teams finished with 19 turnovers that led to 18 points, but WKU’s miscues came at critical times according to Collins.

“Unnecessary turnovers over and over,” Collins said. “It just killed us. We are not a great shooting team. We made some shots today. We played defense well enough, it was in the 50s, so we are there and felt like we had a chance. When you aren’t a great shooting team and you’re not dominating people on the defensive boards, you can’t also turn the ball over. You don’t have enough opportunities to win.”

James led WKU with 12 points. Rowe added 11 points and seven assists, while Telegdy chipped in 11 points and five rebounds.

The loss was the eighth straight for WKU, which has lost 14 out of the last 16 games. The Lady Toppers are 1-6 in games decided by five points or less.

“I feel like we are still spinning our wheels going uphill sometimes,” Collins said. “I am proud that today we were much more poised on offense. We’ve been a lot more deliberate about our shot taking and I thought we did a better job of that. Today I just think we weren’t as intense at the end of shot clocks as we needed to be on defense and I didn’t think we were as focused with the ball in our hands or knowing the ball was coming on offense. If those things don’t improve on the floor, then it is really hard to win games.”

WKU sits in last in the Conference USA standings with a chance to be one of the 10 teams to make the conference tournament dwindling away. New Mexico State is three games clear of WKU for that final spot and hold the tiebreaker over the Lady Toppers.

With six games remaining, time is running out.

“We just have to keep focusing forward,” Collins said. “I’m trying to keep it positive, trying to keep their energy up, trying to keep their confidence. (I’m) trying to keep them together. I’ve never been through anything like this. That takes the majority of my focus, how to keep them together. How to keep them lifted. How to keep them from crashing because it is hard.”

Rowe said she is hopeful the team can build off the positives from Thursday’s game.

“We’ve just got to stick together,” Rowe said. “I think today was really good for us. Even through the mistakes we were looking at each other and being like, ‘Hey, I’ve got your back.’ Just sticking together, believing in each other, believing in coach because I believe in him and I know he believes in us.”