Western Kentucky junior guard Josie Gilvin scored a career-high 27 points to lead the visiting Lady Toppers to a 68-64 win against Abilene Christian on Thursday in Abilene, Texas.

WKU women’s basketball is off to a 4-0 start to the 2024-25 season, marking the ninth time in program history a Lady Topper team has won their first four games of a season and the first time since 2005-06.

The Lady Toppers (4-0) jumped out to an early lead against Abilene Christian (2-4) behind a 13-0 run in the first quarter. The Wildcats cut the lead to two with less than a minute left, but WKU pulled out the road win.

Abilene Christian scored the first points of the game on a pair of free throws, but WKU responded with a 13-0 run fueled by five steals. A Wildcat 3-pointer ended the run and ACU was able to outscore WKU 13-9 through the rest of the quarter to bring the score to 22-15 going into the second quarter.

Gilvin opened the scoring in the second quarter with a jumper to reach double-digit points. The two teams went back and forth, but five straight points by ACU cut the score to a one-point lead for WKU. From there, the Lady Toppers outscored the Wildcats 9-2 to take a 41-33 lead into halftime.

The third quarter was sluggish offensively, with ACU edging WKU 15-11 in the frame to cut the lead to four heading into the fourth quarter.

The Lady Toppers started the fourth quarter on a 6-0 run to extend their lead back to 10. The Wildcats cut it to five with 6:05 left, but Gilvin made back-to-back buckets to thwart the threat. The two teams went back and forth until a 6-0 run by ACU cut it to two with 33 seconds left.

WKU had possession and ran the shot clock down before getting a shot off. The Lady Toppers missed the shot, but Gilvin chased down the rebound and was fouled with less than two seconds left. She made both free throws to give WKU the 68-64 win.

Gilvin topped her career high in points in the first half alone with 18 points and ended the night with 27. She also tied her career high in rebounds with seven and tied her season high in steals with three.

WKU’s Zsofia Telegdy had a career-high 14 rebounds and was two points shy of having her first career double-double. Acacia Hayes had 14 points for her third straight game with double-digit points. Alexis Mead added 10 points and had a season-high eight assists.

WKU has not given up more than 64 points this season. The Lady Toppers are 85-24 under Greg Collins when holding teams below 70.

In four games this season, WKU has had four different leading scorers. Telegdy led at Indiana State with 27, Destiny Salary led against Kentucky State with 18, Hayes led at Mercer with 21 and Gilvin led Thursday with 27.

WKU improves to 90-7 under Collins when leading with five minutes left to play. The Lady Toppers are now 2-0 against Abilene Christian all-time.

The Lady Toppers will return home for a three-game homestand. First up, WKU will take on North Dakota on Sunday at 1 p.m. at E.A. Diddle Arena.