The hair wasn’t right.

Kyvin Goodin-Rogers examined the camera display during a photoshoot and needed a slight adjustment over her white headband.

There for the assist was Jaycee Coe, the one who has walked side by side with her teammate, roommate and best friend since long before they took the court as Lady Toppers for the first time this season.

Rogers and Coe became eligible this season for the Western Kentucky’s women’s basketball team after both sat out a year since transferring from the University of Kentucky. Both have found, and are still developing, their roles for a WKU team sitting in a tie for first place atop the Conference USA standings.

It’s been a process both players have spent adjusting to together. Even if Coe is the one fixing hair on this particular occasion, oftentimes the roles are reversed.

“Ever since she’s been at UK and here, I’ve been her mother,” Rogers said with a grin about her and Coe’s friendship. “I’m her mom away from home. I picked up where I left off. … I’m just a mom. The only thing that’s really changed is coaching staff, teammates and team colors.

“It’s been a good experience watching her grow.”

Coe, a 5-foot-11 Gainesboro, Tenn., native, became eligible at the start of the year and has taken the role as a spark off the bench with ridiculous 3-point shooting range. Rogers, a 6-2 Lebanon native, earned eligibility on Dec. 11 against Louisville and has started every game since, providing WKU with versatility as a combo guard-post player.

Coe and Rogers share the unique situation as experienced college basketball players who became close friends at one school and now play together at another.

That relationship has only grown stronger with both players coming into their own as Lady Toppers.

“After every game we come home and talk about the game and what we could’ve done better,” Coe said. “It’s really nice to have her here. … I’m really close to everybody on the team. Every one of them are my sisters. Kyvin has been around longer, but we’re all about the same.”

Moving to Bowling Green for Coe meant moving closer to family. Not only is she closer to home, but her mother’s side of the family all reside in Bowling Green.

Rogers’ coming to WKU meant reuniting with coach Michelle Clark-Heard, who once recruited Rogers when she was an assistant at Louisville in 2012 before taking the WKU coaching job.

Rogers’ road of physical barriers has been difficult to tackle, but it’s been worth the challenge by following the coach she trusts and settling into a starting role this year.

“I think I’m finally adjusting into offenses and defenses and how everybody plays,” Rogers said. “Game by game, I feel like it gets better and better with the communication and chemistry.

“(Heard) has changed my whole perspective. Her presence has just helped a lot in that she understands there’s some things I just can’t do with my knee situations. She’s just very helpful and very understanding as a coach. She’s always there and knows just what to say.”

As close as they are off the court, the two have their different ways of how they’ve gelled on a team that puts emphasis on individual role responsibilities.

Coe is the designated long-range shooter who feels most comfortable shooting a few feet beyond the 3-point line by the IGA logo in E.A. Diddle Arena. Coe is 33-of-90 (.367) on 3s this season while averaging 10 minutes off the bench. Coe is 5-of-8 on two-point shots through 20 games.

Coe made a season-high 5-of-11 3s at Charlotte on Jan. 5, but hasn’t quite found the same groove since. In eight games since, she hasn’t made more than two 3-pointers and has gone scoreless in three contests. For Coe, the confidence is making the shot is there, which is something she said was lacking in her time at UK.

Now it’s all about making the first shot. When that one falls, the others will usually fall too, she said.

“Sometimes it is hard,” Coe said. “I have a lot of confidence in my shooting. That’s the big difference. Here, I believe every shot is going in that I put up. If it doesn’t, the next one is going in. I feel like I can bring some energy, especially if we haven’t scored a lot and we need a boost. If I hit a 3, that’s a good boost.”

Rogers has battled nagging knee complications all season and can often go days without practicing. She had surgery on her right knee while at UK, then found out after transferring to WKU that the surgery wasn’t done properly while the same pains still lingered. Rogers underwent a second knee surgery and said now there are sometimes issues with her left knee.

“If you ask me, I’m fine, but in reality, no,” Rogers said. “There’s some days I can’t practice. … Some days it can be arthritis and it can be a kneecap from rubbing or whatever. I really never know until I get out of bed and start walking to class.”

It hasn’t slowed Rogers down on game day. She has started 15 games and averages 8.5 points and 4.6 rebounds in 21 minutes per game.

She was a big reason WKU pulled away from Southern Miss last Saturday when she scored eight of her 11 points in the third quarter in a 79-53 victory.

She also snagged a pair of steals and blocked one shot, all in 15 minutes on the floor.

For Rogers, the pain becomes secondary to anything else on game day.

“It says a lot for who she is as a person, it says a lot for how much she cares about this program,” Heard said. “She gives herself every single day on the floor when she’s out there.”

That effort is noticed by her teammates, especially Coe.

“Kyvin does everything I don’t do, if you think about it,” Coe said. “She is just energy, takes charges, is wild on defense and does whatever she has to do for the team to win and that’s just an awesome thing about Kyvin. You don’t see a lot of players like her sacrifice their body like that. She’s already hurting a lot with the knees. She sacrifices every day.”

And even as Rogers fights her own battles, she’s the first to assist someone else. From meeting at UK to joining the Lady Toppers, Rogers and Coe have helped make each other better: be it hair or basketball.

“I think that’s what’s brought us closer,” Rogers said.

— Follow sports reporter Elliott Pratt on Twitter @EPrattBGDN or visit bgdailynews.com