Western Kentucky’s Whitney Creech drives to the basket Nov. 14 during a 78-65 loss against Notre Dame at E.A. Diddle Arena.

Whitney Creech came to Western Kentucky as a confident shooter who led the country in scoring for two years in high school.

Now a sophomore, Creech has revived that confidence in a demanding role with the Lady Toppers.

The WKU sophomore has been at her best in back-to-back games for WKU against No. 6 Notre Dame and at Indiana last week. WKU (1-3) dropped both of those contests, but Creech emerged as a new scoring threat.

“We all knew this is what Whit could do,” senior Tashia Brown said. “It’s just about Whit finding herself and we’re glad she finally figured it out and she’s ready to go every night.”

Creech matched her previous career-high with 17 points against Notre Dame on Nov. 14 before recording her new career-best 25 points in WKU’s 73-71 loss Nov. 17 at Indiana. Creech is now second behind Tashia Brown on the team with 15 points per game on 25 of 48 shots (.521) from the floor.

Against the Hoosiers in front of 3,063 at Assembly Hall, Creech made 10 of 16 shots with a pair of 3-pointers in 39 minutes. She had four rebounds, two assists and two turnovers in her fourth straight appearance in the starting lineup.

She can carry that hot start forward when WKU plays Mercer at the Georgia State Tournament at 5 p.m. CT Friday in Atlanta.

“Confidence is pretty high right now,” Creech said. “I’m staying aggressive and playing hard and just doing what the coaches are telling me.”

Creech is meeting every expectation of filling the starting point guard position left vacant by the graduation of multi-year starter Micah Jones. Creech doesn’t yet have the high assist-turnover ratio (0.80) that Jones had, but her role molds to that of a natural scorer rather than getting others involved.

The 5-foot-8 guard from Jenkins came to WKU as Kentucky’s all-time leading scorer, male or female, with 5,527 points. She led the country in scoring in each of her last two seasons averaging 42 points per game as a junior and 50.3 points per game her senior year.

“I think we all knew she was special when we signed her,” WKU coach Michelle Clark-Heard said. “That was one of the important things for us. She’s growing. As a freshman and young player, you grow each and every day. She’s just taking advantage of her opportunities to be in the position she’s in. She’s trying to be the best.

“We’re growing every day and she’s getting more comfortable in her spots with the ball in her hands and doing the things she needs to do, and that’s a great opportunity for us and for this team and all the other young ones to see that. She’s a great example of knowing the system and to know if you keep doing it, great things will happen.”

Creech has made the most of those opportunities while other teams put most of their attention on Tashia Brown and Ivy Brown. Tashia Brown is averaging 21 points and Ivy Brown has been limited offensively, but is still a factor in several other areas.

Since scoring career-best 31 points against Iowa in the second game of the year, Ivy Brown has scored 11 points in the last two games and needs just two more to reach 1,000 for her career.

Creech has made up for the attention drawn to the Browns.

“I felt that way,” Creech said on opponents giving her space to shoot. “I felt like I had a lot of open shots and I’m just shooting with confidence.”

After scoring six points on three field goals in the opener against then-16th ranked Missouri, Creech nearly doubled her shots and made 5 of 11 attempts to go with 12 points against Iowa.

Against Notre Dame, she made 7 of 16 shots from the floor for 17 points. Her 16 shots trailed on Tashia Brown’s 25 field goal attempts. She and Brown each had 16 shots at Indiana, twice as many as Ivy Brown’s eight attempts.

Assistant coach Greg Collins told the Daily News in October that he’s putting in a lot of time with Creech to change the way she sees the floor. Collins said in the same way Ivy Brown broke out her sophomore year that Creech would have a similar boost in performance.

So far, so good.

“I think one of the biggest things he’s helped me with is slowing the game down,” Creech said. “I may not be the quickest player, but I can use my speed wisely.

I may not use it all the time, but use it when I can to take advantage of people. Just slowing down, not rushing and just reading the defense and take what they give me.”