Western Kentucky’s postseason starts Thursday night against Kennesaw State at VBC Propst Arena in Huntsville, Alabama.

The goal for the Hilltoppers is to make sure the postseason doesn’t also end Thursday night against the Owls in the Conference USA Men’s Basketball Championship quarterfinals.

“You work about 51 weeks of the year to get to this one and to see what we can do,” WKU coach Hank Plona said. “Obviously this team’s been together now and through a lot of ups and downs – had a pretty serious up there probably about a week ago and we’ve got to come back from a pretty disappointing road trip for us. You put that all together, I think we’ve proved that we can play and beat anybody. But we’ve also proved that if we’re not at our best that we can struggle.”

WKU (18-13) enters Thursday’s 8 p.m. CT matchup as the tournament’s No. 3 seed to face No. 6 seed Kennesaw (18-13).

That higher seeding doesn’t necessarily mean the Tops are favored to win – the Owls swept a pair of regular-season matchups, beating WKU 81-65 on Jan. 17 at E.A. Diddle Arena and then claiming a 72-69 win at home on Jan. 28.

Despite losing CUSA’s then-leading scorer Simeon Cottle to indefinite suspension – he’s facing federal charges as part of an investigation into a point-shaving scheme – the Owls have managed to maintain the league’s top-scoring offense this season averaging 83.5 points per game.

Cottle’s absence has allowed redshirt sophomore guard RJ Johnson to emerge as a dangerous scoring threat, particularly against the Tops. Johnson, who is averaging 14.2 points per game, scored a game-high 31 points in the first meeting and then tallied a team-high 19 points the next time out against WKU. Johnson, a Huntsville native, will be playing in his hometown.

“They still have a lead, dynamic guard,” Plona said of Johnson. “I tell you, it’s a different look because Johnson is not just a jump shooter. I mean, Cottle is an elite jump shooter. RJ Johnson is a 6-4, 225-point combo guard, point guard, scoring guard. And he’s a real matchup problem. He’s unique.”

Kennesaw, also the league’s top rebounding team this season, pushes the pace on offense and features plenty of length on both ends of the floor.

The Owls’ Frankquon Sherman has put up solid numbers (10 points, 8.6 rebounds per game), forward Braedan Lue is another reliable scorer (11.4 ppl) and forward Trey Simpson is a dangerous 3-point threat (55 made 3s).

“They’ve gone bigger and bigger,” Plona said. “Their length is significant. Simpson can really shoot. Sherman’s a utility knife. Braedan Lue can play the five, but he can also play the three. Jaden Harris has had an increased role here recently and has been a very good player for them. There’s just no weak links out there.”

Like Kennesaw, the Hilltoppers enter Thursday’s game on a two-game losing streak after dropping road games against Missouri State and FIU last week. That came on the heels of arguably WKU’s best stretch of basketball this season, when the Hilltoppers won six straight games — seven of eight — and dominated in their final two home games at Diddle.

In Saturday’s loss to the Panthers, the Tops were out of sorts on offense and it got worse when leading scorer Teagan Moore turned an ankle and played limited minutes after that.

“We expect him to be good to go on Thursday,” Plona said. “He kind of tweaked his ankle a little bit, was kind of playing through it, limping through it – he landed on somebody’s foot.”

A healthy Moore has been vital to the Tops’ success this season. The redshirt sophomore guard leads the team in scoring at 18.4 points, with forward Grant Newell (12.9 ppg), guard Ryan Myers (11.1 ppg) and guard Armelo Boone (10.9 ppg) also averaging double-digit scoring.

After scoring more than 90 points in the final three outings of the six-game winning streak, the Tops were held under 75 in the two losses last week.

“Bottom line, these guys have got to go out there and hoop, man,” Plona said. “We have a team that’s older, that’s been there.

“ … We need our guys to be the best versions of themselves. This has been a team that’s consistently showed that when they are the best versions of themselves that we can be competing right there with anybody in America – literally, with anybody in America. I think the key is to get us to be comfortable, to be confident, to make sure that we play with an edge to us but that we also play … no matter what’s going on for those 40 minutes that we have a belief and a determination that we have the ability to get it done.”

Thursday’s game will be streamed on ESPN+.