The Western Kentucky women’s basketball team’s quest to get to the Conference USA Tournament in Huntsville, Alabama next month took a big step forward Saturday following a 70-65 win over longtime rival Middle Tennessee at E.A. Diddle Arena.

WKU (7-18 overall, 3-11 Conference USA) held the Blue Raiders in check for three quarters before surviving a furious fourth-quarter rally to get arguably the biggest win of the season to date. It was the first time winning back-to-back games this season, gives WKU home wins against Middle Tennessee in back-to-back seasons and avenges an 81-58 loss in Murfreesboro, Tennessee three weeks ago.

“When you go on a long losing streak, just winning the first one is huge,” WKU coach Greg Collins said. “It doesn’t matter who it is, but this is the best win against a really good opponent. Credit to the staff — coach Todd Buchanan — we worked all week on playing man defense because we’ve been playing a lot of zone. We felt like they were working on a zone offense. At first it will surprise them, but they will get used to it and we will have to really play.

“I was proud the girls kept working really hard and trying to talk and solve problems. It was a little scary down the stretch there, but we settled down.”

Both offenses started cold, with the teams combining to shoot 6-for-31 in the first quarter. WKU was able to slip in front, scoring four points in the final minute of the quarter to take a 9-6 advantage.

Trinity Rowe opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer to make the score 12-6. It was the start of a huge offensive outburst for the sophomore guard with Rowe hitting four 3s in the second, one at the horn that gave the Lady Toppers a 30-19 halftime lead.

“I feel like Trinity played a phenomenal game,” Collins said. “I believe she made one mistake the whole game. Was just heady. She made some timely 3s for us in that second quarter. She knocked down some big shots for us. And then she did a great job of taking care of the ball.”

WKU continued to control the momentum in the third with 3 from Tatum Boettjer helping the lead balloon to 47-27 midway through the third. Middle Tennessee (14-12, 9-5) got the deficit down to 14 before a five-point flurry from the Lady Toppers briefly halted the comeback bid. The Blue Raiders were able to add two free throws at the end of the third to make the score 55-38.

After the teams exchanged buckets to open the fourth, Middle Tennessee used a 12-0 run to whittle the margin down to 57-52 with 4:35 remaining. A bucket from Torri James ended the drought, but MTSU was able to get as close as 61-58 with 2:35 left before WKU was able to stem the tide hitting nine out of 10 free throws down the stretch — the final two from Rowe that clinched the win with 16.3 seconds left.

“It was very exciting to be able to breathe there at the end,” Rowe said. “I think we made a really good push there in the first half. Just being able to gather ourselves at the end there and pull out the win was really big for us. I know we kept looking at each other saying, ‘We got this. We believe.’ Never a doubt in our mind, so that was really big for us.”

Selma Khedr, held to two points with foul trouble in the first half, finished the day with a team-high 20 points — including 8-for-8 from the free-throw line.

“Once the second quarter ended, that was erased,” Khedr said. “We have a new game, new quarter, new day, everything, so I just stopped thinking about it and played. Don’t focus on the other team. Keep focusing on myself.”

Rowe added a season-high 18 points for WKU, which shot 42% from the field. Middle Tennessee finished 36% shooting from the field with most of the offensive damage coming in the fourth-quarter rally.

“I’ve felt like the path for this team to win is to be consistent on defense,” Collins said. “Just trying to make it difficult for the other team to get good shots. If we make shots, that helps. That’s what got us a lead. Defense kept us in the game, but when we made shots, we were able to extend that lead.”

With the win, WKU moves a game back of 10th place in the conference standings with both UTEP and New Mexico State with four games remaining. WKU owns the tiebreaker over UTEP, but New Mexico State has the tiebreaker over WKU. The top 10 teams in conference play advance to the conference tournament.

WKU will return to action at 6 p.m. CST on Thursday beginning its final regular season road trip at Delaware.