The comeback Lady Toppers were at it again Saturday at E.A. Diddle Arena.

WKU rallied from eight points down with seven minutes to go to slip past UTEP 66-65, giving Western Kentucky its fourth win of the season when trailing in the fourth quarter.

Destiny Salary scored 17 of her game-high 25 points in the second half, including the game-winner with 8.5 seconds left.

The win came against a UTEP team WKU beat twice in the final seconds last season – including a 19-point fourth-quarter rally at UTEP.

“We just have grit,” WKU sophomore guard Acacia Hayes said. “We have heart and we have fight in us. No matter what the score is, ever, our mind is always focused on the same goal the entire game – and that’s getting the W at the end of the game. It doesn’t matter what happened in the first half … when it comes to the fourth quarter and it is time for crunch time, we are locked in and ready to get the win.”

WKU (12-7 overall, 4-1 Conference USA) entered looking to bounce back from a disappointing performance against New Mexico State on Thursday. While the offense struggled again shooting, going 32% from the field, some timely 3-pointers and key offensive rebounds made the difference to allow the Lady Toppers to squeak out the victory.

UTEP (6-11, 1-3) used an 11-1 run to build a 16-9 lead late in the first quarter. The lead grew to as much as nine points in the first half, with WKU trailing 33-25 at the break.

WKU finished 8-for-27 shooting in the first half, but managed to keep it close with four 3-pointers in the first half.

Salary got the Lady Toppers going in the second half, with three 3s during an 11-0 run that gave WKU a 36-33 advantage less than three minutes into the third quarter.

“We still can’t shoot the ball right now,” WKU coach Greg Collins said. “I don’t know what it is. We are in a team slump. We talked about it in the huddle coming out of halftime, ‘You are good shooters. … Stop worrying about it. Just shoot your shot and then everybody else go get it.’ Maybe that freed them up a little bit. I think they were just overthinking it.”

UTEP responded with eight straight to regain the momentum and was able to keep the lead going into the fourth quarter. The Miners’ lead was 59-51 after a free throw from Jane Asinde with seven minutes left, before WKU began to rally.

Hayes capped a 7-0 spurt with a 3 to trim the deficit to 59-58 with just over four minutes left. UTEP hit a pair of free throws to push the margin back to three, but two free throws from Hayes followed by two free throws from Salary gave the Lady Toppers a 62-61 lead with 2:21 remaining.

The lead changed hands three times over the next two minutes, with Luisa Vudrova’s jumper giving UTEP a 65-64 advantage with 21.7 seconds left.

That set the stage for Salary, who took a pass from Alexis Mead and drove into the lane for a go-ahead reverse layup with 8.5 seconds left. Salary said her mindset during the play was to score or find her open teammate.

“When I realized that Alexis’s person followed behind her, I figured there wouldn’t be any help side so I would have the layup,” Salary said.

Out of timeouts, UTEP had one final chance but Teresa Faustino was able to knock the ball away and secure it to prevent the Miners from getting a shot off.

Collins said it was a nice bounce-back effort from his team following Thursday’s loss.

“We talked about we didn’t play the way we wanted to play Thursday night against New Mexico State,” Collins said. “We just didn’t. And a lot of it give credit to them, but a lot of it was us.

“ … The ball movement was way better. That was something we talked about. I felt like for most of the second half it was pretty good. Then we got that stretch where we took a lead and then we got down five or six and we started getting stale. We had a timeout and talked about making sure we got back to passing and cutting and moving. The girls did a great job with that.”

Salary’s 25-point night equaled a career high. Hayes added 19 points with Faustino scoring nine points and Mead finishing with eight points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals.

WKU shot 32% from the field, but was 11-for-39 from 3-point range. Despite being outrebounded overall 39-33, WKU had a 13-6 edge on the offensive glass that led to a 20-4 advantage in second-chance points.

“I think once we started to go and get the rebounds, things started going in our favor,” Salary said. “The offense started to look better and we were looking better on defense.”

WKU will return to action at 6 p.m. CST on Thursday at FIU, which has won seven straight games including a 4-0 start in conference play.{&end}