Western Kentucky’s women’s basketball gutted out a Conference USA road win in a defensive battle at Jacksonville State, winning 51-44 on Thursday night in Jacksonville, Alabama.

The two teams went into the fourth quarter tied, but WKU (10-5 overall, 1-2 CUSA) pulled away in the end to defeat Jax State (7-6, 1-1 CUSA) for the Lady Toppers’ first conference win of the season.

Jax State scored the first points of the game, but WKU responded with an 11-2 run to take an early lead. The Gamecocks went on a run of their own, scoring nine straight to regain the lead. The Lady Toppers scored the final four points of the frame to take a 15-13 lead into the second quarter.

The second quarter was a low-scoring period for both teams. The Lady Toppers opened the frame with a 6-0 run to expand their lead to eight. The Gamecocks outscored WKU 9-4 the rest of the quarter, giving WKU a 25-22 lead going into halftime.

The third quarter was an even lower scoring period for both teams. Jax State edged WKU, 9-6, in the frame and the two teams went into the final quarter tied at 31.

WKU outscored Jax State 5-1 in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter, but the Gamecocks cut it to one with three straight points. Mackenzie Chatfield came in off the bench and hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Zsofia Telegdy made a jumper to give WKU a nine-point advantage with 3:01 left in the game. The two teams went back-and-forth, but Jax State cut it to four with 17 seconds left. The Lady Toppers closed out the game going 3-of-4 from the free-throw line to secure the win.

WKU was led in scoring by Telegdy with 13 points to go along with eight rebounds and a pair of assists. It was her best offensive night since scoring 14 points against Miami (Ohio) on Dec. 1 and her best rebounding night since pulling down 10 boards against Tennessee State on Nov. 27.

Chatfield ignited in the fourth quarter, scoring all nine of her points and dishing out all three of her assists in the frame.

Josie Gilvin led WKU on the boards, grabbing nine to tie her career high.

Alexis Mead added eight points, five rebounds and three assists. With the three assists she becomes just fifth WKU player all-time to record over 400 career assists and 200 career steals. She joins Dawn Warner, Renee Westmoreland, Kendall Noble and Clemette Haskins.

WKU improves to 10-1 under head coach Greg Collins when holding teams below 50 points, 45-9 under Collins when holding teams below 60 and 90-25 under Collins when holding teams below 70.

The Lady Toppers outrebounded Jax State, 42-33, in the game. That tied WKU’s season high in rebounds. WKU improves to 6-0 this season when outrebounding its opponents.

The Lady Toppers will stay on the road to take on Kennesaw State on Saturday.