Lady Tops roll past New Mexico State

Published 10:58 am Sunday, March 2, 2025

By Micheal Compton

It was a successful final act to the home schedule of the Western Kentucky women’s basketball team, which rolled to an 85-68 win over New Mexico State on Saturday at E.A. Diddle Arena.

On a day when WKU honored seniors Alexis Mead, Destiny Salary and Mariama Sow, WKU (21-7 overall, 12-4 Conference USA) built a huge lead through three quarters and cruised from there, finishing the home portion of the schedule on a high note.

WKU shot 51%, including 12-for-29 from 3-point range, but it was the defensive effort that Lady Topper coach Greg Collins said really provided the energy in the win.

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“That’s a gritty, tough team and we shot the ball well, but the reason we shot the ball well was the defense was locked in,” Collins said. “The press – we are getting better. We keep working on it every day. We work on our half-court defense all the time and they are just getting better. Good defense generates easier offense.”

WKU was never really threatened, with a 13-0 first-quarter run making the score 19-4 and the Lady Toppers pushing the lead to 26-9 late in the first after the sixth made 3 of the quarter.

Mead left the game early in the second quarter after being hit in the nose. While WKU worked to stop the bleeding and find a facemask for her to wear, New Mexico State (15-14, 8-8) was able to trim the deficit to 30-19.

A Josie Gilvin 3 sparked a 7-0 spurt to help grow the lead and Mead returned late in the half – in time to help WKU push that advantage to 46-26 by halftime.

“I always say, pound for pound she is the toughest kid in the conference,” Collins said. “She probably has a broken nose. I said, ‘Go get her a mask,’ and sat down beside her. This is the first time her mom has got to see her play in person and so I said, ‘Your mom didn’t fly all the way here from California to see you on the side with a broken nose, so suck it up and go play.’ She said, ‘Coach, I’m good,’ and I knew she was fine then. She’s tough. She’s a competitor. She wants to win.”

The margin continued to balloon, with the lead extended to as high as 73-37 early in the fourth before Collins emptied the bench and allowed his seniors to have one final curtain call.

“Honestly, I was just trying to have fun out there with my teammates,” Mead said of playing through the injury. “I think when we are all out there together, I can see it in everybody’s eyes and stuff. Everybody was going to have fun tonight. I’m glad us seniors were able to experience that with the people that were on the court and even on the bench. The atmosphere as well – it all helped anything I did on the court tonight.”

Mead led the way with 23 points, eight assists and seven rebounds in the final home game of her four-year career at WKU.

Gilvin finished with 17 points and six rebounds in three quarters of action, ending her string of four straight double-doubles. Salary finished with 17 points – including a career high five made 3s – and seven rebounds. The graduate guard has 22 made 3s on the season, eight in the last two games.

“I think I had kind of lost confidence in myself,” Salary said. “I was always thinking, ‘Drive, drive, drive,’ but I started to realize they were giving it to me. Just having the confidence to shoot the ball.”

Mackenzie Chatfield had 11 points and five assists filling in for Acacia Hayes, who started and played two minutes before exiting the game.

“Acacia is going to be all right,” Collins said. “She is going through some tough things right now, but we will get through that. She still had her 1,000-point ball presentation tonight at the end of the game. I am so proud of her. She’s a phenomenal player and she’s going to be back.”

The win guarantees that WKU will be no worse than the No. 3 seed in the Conference USA Tournament. The Lady Toppers still have a chance to move up to second, but need wins at Florida International and Liberty next week and a Liberty loss to Middle Tennessee.

WKU will begin that final road trip at FIU at 6 p.m. on Thursday.

I am a sports reporter and movie critic for the Bowling Green Daily News.

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