It’s usually safe to count on Western Kentucky bouncing back from a loss. It’s even safer to think the Lady Toppers can do it Thursday morning in their annual Education Day game.

Only five times in Michelle Clark-Heard’s six-year tenure has WKU (12-5 overall, 3-1 Conference USA) lost consecutive games. The longest that streak has been was losing three straight this season to Power 5 opponents Iowa, Notre Dame and Indiana.

In Education Day games, like the one WKU will host Thursday at 11 a.m. at E.A. Diddle Arena against Texas-San Antonio, the Lady Toppers are a perfect 6-0.

WKU’s early tip-off was planned to welcome thousands of elementary school students from Warren County and surrounding areas in the annual Spread the Red Education Day, but due to surrounding school closures, the only students attending will be from Bowling Green Independent School District.

Because of the inclement conditions, admission to the 11 a.m. tip-off is free.

Around 2,700 students showed up to last year’s Education Day game and the overall announced attendance of 4,215 was the largest crowd for the midday showcase since 2015.

The university saw a dip in attendance for the 2016 game (2,814) due to inclement weather postponing the originally scheduled event. The Lady Toppers have averaged 4,160 in attendance for the past six Education Day games.

“We just want people to come out,” Heard said. “If it’s safe for them to get here and support us, we would love for them to. I really hate that we won’t have those students in here.

“I feel like we continue to get in situations where there might be weather, so we might do something next year in nonconference or something like that. Because we always want the opportunities for the schools to have a chance to come out and be a part of that.”

WKU wants to keep that consecutive-loss stat to a minimum with a good showing against UTSA (3-13, 1-3), which has a 2-1 advantage in the short series.

In Saturday’s 79-61 loss at Alabama-Birmingham on Saturday, WKU was outscored 22-7 in the fourth quarter and Tashia Brown was held to a season-low 13 points. Ivy Brown nearly had another double-double with 25 points and nine rebounds and Dee Givens poured in 14 points off the bench.

Freshman Raneem Elgedawy was scoreless in 16 minutes and had just four rebounds one game after tying a C-USA record 23 boards last Thursday against FIU.

“I feel like the UAB game is something that we can continue to grow and learn from,” Heard said Monday. “It’s early in the conference season and we can grow from that.”

UTSA comes off its first conference win by beating Old Dominion 64-56 on Saturday in San Antonio, which snapped an eight-game losing skid.

The Roadrunners rank last in C-USA in points allowed (73.0 ppg), scoring margin (-13.8), free throw percentage (.590) and field goal percentage defense (42.5).

Marie Benson leads UTSA with 13.8 points per game and ranks third in C-USA at 9.6 rebounds per contest. Crystal Chidomere (13.3) and Carlie Heineman (11.1) round out UTSA’s top scorers.

Kristen Holt heads the Roadrunners in her first full season as head coach. She spent four seasons as the associate head coach before being promoted in August when Luby Lichonczak was fired after four seasons.

UTSA beat WKU in San Antonio last January by three points. It was the Lady Toppers’ last C-USA loss before falling at UAB last weekend.

“(Holt) was an assistant there last year, but the tendencies when you have the same coach don’t change,” Heard said. “I always try to make sure you go back (to last year’s game) on things and look and see that we ran this or did that. It goes back a lot with personnel because what we could do last year … are not the same things we can do with this team. I try to do the best I can as a student of the game and make sure I go back and get everything down and prepare this team.

“When we lose, I take it as hard as anyone. I go back and go through every play and what I could’ve done. As a coach, you have to move on and be ready to prep for anything.”

Probable starters

Western Kentucky – Tashia Brown, f, 6-1, sr. (22.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg); Whitney Creech, g, 5-8, so. (8.6 ppg, 3.0 rpg); Ivy Brown, f, 6-1, sr. (16.5 ppg, 9.9 rpg); Sherry Porter, g, 5-7, fr. (4.5 ppg, 2.1 ppg); Raneem Elgedawy, f, 6-4, fr. (8.5 ppg, 7.8 rpg)

UTSA – Marie Benson, f, 6-1, so. (13.7 ppg, 9.8 rpg); Carlie Heineman, g, 6-0, sr. (11.1 ppg, 2.9 rpg); Tasharian Robinson, g, 5-10, fr. (4.4 ppg, 2.5 rpg); Tija Hawkins, f, 6-1, so. (7.3 ppg, 5.4 rpg); Kourtney Kekc, f, 5-10, jr. (2.3 ppg, 2.2 rpg)

TV – Fox College Sports

Radio ESPN 102.7 FM or 1450 AM

Coaches Michelle Clark-Heard (142-44 sixth year; 166-76 overall), Western Kentucky; Kristen Holt (3-13 first year; 66-100 overall) UTSA.

Series Record UTSA leads 2-1 (UTSA won the last meeting 80-77 on Jan. 28).

Last time out Western Kentucky lost 79-61 at UAB on Saturday; UTSA won 64-56 over Old Dominion on Saturday.{&end}