TAMPA, Fla. – Western Kentucky might not make it easy, but the Hilltoppers are still dancing.

WKU saw a 15-point second-half lead evaporate, but regrouped for a 72-63 NCAA Tournament second-round win over San Diego today.

It capped a wild weekend for the Hilltoppers, which began Friday with Ty Rogers’ heroic game-winning 3-point shot over Drake and now continues with their first Sweet 16 appearance since 1993.

The 12th seeded Hilltoppers (29-6) will meet top-seed UCLA on Thursday (time TBA) in Phoenix.

“Coming in, one of our goals was to win the (Sun Belt Conference) championship so we can position ourselves to come here and play games,” WKU senior guard Courtney Lee said. “We accomplished that and we didn’t want to stop with that. We wanted to come and make noise and win games.”

Lee had 29 points and answered with a huge 3-pointer after the Toreros knocked the Hilltoppers to the mat with an 18-2 run.

Immediately after San Diego’s Devin Ginty gave the Toreros a 55-54 lead with 6:35 left – the Toreros’ first lead since the early minutes – Lee canned his own 3-pointer and the Hilltoppers never trailed after that.

“He hit a big shot, but he hit big shots all day,” San Diego coach Bill Grier said. “Like I said, I think he’s a future NBA kid. He played a terrific game at the right time.”

Before Lee’s shot, WKU missed nine of 10 shots.

“Just like Friday’s game, we just learn from it,” Lee said. “There’s been a number of games we’ve been close in. We just have great poise and we just know we’re going to come down and attack and do the things we need to do.”

After building a comfortable 39-27 halftime lead by shooting almost 57 percent and forcing 12 San Diego turnovers, the Hilltoppers held on despite shooting under 37 percent in the second half.

Following Lee’s bucket, the Hilltoppers fended off one more San Diego (22-14) challenge.

Down 61-58, the Toreros’ Brandon Johnson’s runner in the paint was negated by a charge call.

Brazelton, who had 15 points, responded with a 3-pointer and wrapped up a game-sealing 9-2 run.

“Just really proud of these guys led by (seniors Lee, Brazelton and Rogers) to do what we had to do down the stretch to finish the game off,”

WKU coach Darrin Horn said. “Couple of huge, huge shots by Tyrone and Courtney individually when we needed them and some big stops.”

—The Hilltoppers are expected to leave Tampa, Fla., tonight at 8:30 p.m. CDT and land in Bowling Green at approximately 10 p.m. CDT.