RICHMOND – Eastern Kentucky coach Dan McHale wrote the number “87” on the whiteboard Wednesday night before his team’s game against Western Kentucky.

That number represented 1987, the last year the Colonels beat the Hilltoppers. WKU had won 13 straight meetings since then.

McHale then had his players write “2016” on the whiteboard. The message was clear: EKU wanted that skid to end.

The Colonels made that happen, pulling away in the second half on their way to a 78-59 victory over the visiting Toppers.

McHale, in his second year as Eastern Kentucky’s coach, saw a Colonels (4-4) win over WKU (3-4) take place for the first time since he was a young boy.

“I said, ‘Who was born in 1987?’ Because I was seven years old,” McHale said. “These guys obviously weren’t born.

“This meant a lot. I said this is something that they’ll understand for a long, long time. … This is something very special and this team deserved to win the game.”

WKU and EKU were longtime Ohio Valley Conference rivals. The teams had met 155 times before Wednesday, with the Hilltoppers holding a 112-43 edge in the series.

The in-state foes have met intermittently in years since. WKU’s visit to Paul S. McBrayer Arena on Wednesday was its first since 2007 and just its second since 1994.

The teams started a home-and-home series last year, with a Justin Johnson 3-pointer at the buzzer clinching an 86-84 Tops win.

This time EKU made a 28-10 run during the middle of the second half to break the game open and fire up an energetic crowd that included Kentucky governor Matt Bevin, who sat courtside.

“Last year was tough with Johnson hitting the game-winning 3,” said Colonels forward Nick Mayo, who scored 18 points. “For us, there were only four of us on the team that remember it because we’ve got such a new team. But we didn’t forget it.

“It was a big game, a big rival game. We came out and wanted to get this win.”

Stansbury compares playing bench to rolling dice

WKU coach Rick Stansbury doesn’t know what he’s going to get out of his inexperienced bench on a nightly basis. The answer Wednesday night was not much.

The Hilltoppers’ bench was outscored by the Colonels’ reserves by a whopping 33-4. A Marty Leahy 3 and Anton Waters free throw accounted for WKU’s only bench points in the loss.

Stansbury was asked what kind of trust he has right now in his bench to produce consistently.

“I’ll say this in a nice way, it’s like rolling dice,” Stansbury said.

Waters (17 minutes), Tobias Howard (14 minutes) and Leahy (10 minutes) were the only WKU players to see any significant time off the bench Wednesday. Damari Parris – who didn’t play at all Saturday in a loss at UNLV – and walk-on Tyler Miller played one minute each.

That meant starters Justin Johnson, Que Johnson, Junior Lomomba and Pancake Thomas all played at least 33 minutes.

Stansbury referenced the starters’ fatigue leading to mistakes, though Justin Johnson said he wasn’t using that excuse for the team’s play.

“We worked hard in the offseason, conditioning and everything,” the junior forward Johnson said. “You can’t use fatigue as an excuse. That’s what I see that as, as an excuse.”

Johnson nominated for Allstate Good Works Team

Johnson was named a 2017 Allstate NABC Good Works Team nominee on Wednesday morning.

The Allstate NABC Good Works Team recognizes players at all levels of college basketball whose charitable involvement and altruistic acts stand out amongst all other student-athletes participating in the sport, per a WKU news release.

Johnson, a Hazard native, has made mission trips to China and Belize the last two summers with the Sports Reach program, and he’s also volunteered at Bowling Green Retirement Village and the Boys & Girls Club.

Johnson is one of 181 players nominated for the NABC honor. The final 10-member team will be announced in February.

Notes

Stansbury is now 3-4 in his first year at WKU and 296-170 overall. … The Hilltoppers lead the all-time series between the two schools 112-44 and are 46-27 on the road in the series … WKU has made at least one 3-pointer in 913 consecutive games dating to March 15, 1987. … Guard Que Johnson scored 13 points and is now 62 points away from 1,000 in his career across his time at Washington State and with the Toppers. … Attendance at McBrayer Arena was 5,400.

-Follow sports reporter Brad Stephens on Twitter @BradBGDN or visit bgdailynews.com.