After a Power Five win at Alabama on Saturday, the Western Kentucky men’s basketball team will look to close the nonconference portion of the schedule strong.

The Hilltoppers are scheduled to face Tennessee Tech on Tuesday in a 6 p.m. game at E.A. Diddle Arena.

“(The win over Alabama) gives us a lot of momentum,” WKU sophomore guard Jordan Rawls said after Saturday’s 73-71 win in Tuscaloosa, Ala. “We already feel that we can play with anybody in the country, so this just shows that we can.”

The win moved the Hilltoppers to 6-2, and was the team’s fourth straight victory. The only two losses came to other Power Five programs. WKU lost to a ranked West Virginia team in a close game at the Bad Boy Mowers Crossover Classic in Sioux Falls, S.D., and at Louisville in the team’s worst performance of the season.

Tennessee Tech hasn’t seen the same level of success this winter in the second year under John Pelphrey. The Golden Eagles sit at 0-8, and are getting outscored by an average of over 20 points per game. Tennessee Tech’s losses include teams like Indiana, Xavier and, most recently, Tennessee, however. The Golden Eagles are currently on a 10-game skid.

Jr. Clay leads Tennessee Tech at 13.6 points per game, and Damaria Franklin and Keishawn Davidson each add double-digit scoring. Madisonville-North Hopkins graduate Kenny White is fourth on the team in scoring with 8.3 points per game.

Charles Bassey and Jordan Rawls led WKU in its win Saturday, after Taveion Hollingsworth and Kenny Cooper got into early foul trouble. Bassey scored 27 points – two shy of tying his career-high against Gardner-Webb earlier this season – and added 12 rebounds. Rawls scored a career-high 20 points.

Hollingsworth scored only four points in 16 minutes – his lowest totals in both categories this season. The only time he’s played fewer than 30 minutes this season was in a blowout victory against Mississippi Valley State. The senior guard is still averaging 14.9 points per game.

“We all know we need Taveion. We need Taveion,” WKU coach Rick Stansbury said after Saturday’s game. “Taveion probably never really got in a rhythm once he came back in. He had a couple wide open little floaters he’s going to make nine times out of 10. For the most part, we’re pretty good about not getting in foul trouble. He’s pretty good about.”

WKU has seen a major boost from the bench this season. It’s currently averaging 26 bench points per game, an increase from 11.8 per game last season. No Hilltopper is averaging more than 28.6 minutes per game, and eight are averaging at least 17.7. In each of Stansbury’s first four seasons at WKU, the Hilltoppers had three players average 30 or minutes per game.

The Hilltoppers feel like they know their strengths after eight games – WKU, as of Sunday, was one of only 60 programs in the country (16.8%) to play at least eight games this season – and will look to close out the nonconference schedule undefeated at home.

“I think we know our identity as a team – we’re tough, we’re going to battle every night – so really it’s just these next few days preparing for Tennessee Tech,” Rawls said Saturday.

WKU is 82-20 against Tennessee Tech all time, including 43-6 in Bowling Green. WKU beat Tennessee Tech 76-64 last year, and was led by Bassey and Carson Williams, who each had 16 points. Tennessee Tech hasn’t beaten WKU since Dec. 5, 1992, and hasn’t beaten the Hilltoppers in Bowling Green since 1977.

The Hilltoppers are scheduled to follow Tuesday’s game by opening Conference USA play with two games at Charlotte on Jan. 1 and 2.

TENNESSEE TECH (0-8) AT WESTERN KENTUCKY (6-2)

6 p.m., Tuesday, E.A. Diddle Arena

Probable starters

TENNESSEE TECH

Damaria Franklin, g, 6-4, jr. (11.0 ppg, 2.7 rpg); Keishawn Davidson, g, 6-2, so. (10.6 ppg, 3.6 rpg); Jr. Clay, g, 6-0, jr. (13.6 ppg, 3.6 apg); Austin Harvell, f, 6-6, fr. (6.1 ppg, 4.6 rpg); Shandon Goldman, f, 6-10, gr. (4.3 ppg, 4.5 rpg).

WESTERN KENTUCKY

Taveion Hollingsworth, g, 6-2, sr. (14.9 ppg, 2.5 rpg); Kenny Cooper, g, 6-0, r-sr. (2.9 ppg, 2.3 apg); Charles Bassey, c, 6-11, jr. (17.8 ppg, 11.4 rpg); Carson Williams, f, 6-5, r-sr. (5.4 ppg, 6.1 rpg); Josh Anderson, g, 6-6, sr. (9.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg)

Television

ESPNU

Radio

Hilltopper Sports Network

Coaches

John Pelphrey (9-30, second year; 158-152 overall), Tennessee Tech; Rick Stansbury (88-54, fifth year; 381-220 overall), WKU.

Series record

WKU leads the series 82-20 (The Hilltoppers won the last meeting 76-64 on Nov. 5, 2019, at E.A. Diddle Arena).

Last time out

Tennessee Tech lost at Tennessee 103-49 on Friday; Western Kentucky won at Alabama 73-71 on Saturday.{&end}