LEXINGTON – It was all business for Western Kentucky when it walked into Memorial Coliseum on Thursday.

The Lady Toppers are in their third NCAA Tournament in the last four years but have come up empty handed in the last two trips. Gone now are the days where the Lady Toppers are excited simply by making the field of 64.

To get a win against fifth-seeded Ohio State (26-6), WKU, a 12-seed, will have to play better than it already has been playing.

“Of course, we’re excited about being here, but it’s just another basketball game,” redshirt senior Kendall Noble said. “We prepare for it the same way we prepare for every game.”

WKU (27-6) rode into Lexington on a 12-game winning streak and its second Conference USA championship after beating Southern Mississippi last Saturday 67-56 in Birmingham, Ala. Tipoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. CDT on ESPN2 at Memorial Coliseum.

Western Kentucky brings its best overall shooting team into the tournament that the program has had in five years under Michelle Clark-Heard. Ohio State, the 11th-ranked team in the country, which is statistically an even better shooting team, is taking notice.

WKU’s ability to knock down shots from anywhere on the court drew high praise from Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff and players Thursday.

“They’re a great team,” Ohio State senior Shayla Cooper said. “They have a lot of shooters. We’ll have to get up and pressure them a lot and try to stick to Ohio State basketball, focus on ourselves and get the ball going up and down.”

WKU has had one of its best shooting seasons in recent history. The Lady Toppers are shooting 44 percent from the field, 33.5 percent from 3-point range and 77.1 percent from the free-throw line. Through 33 games, WKU has knocked down a school-record 233 3-pointers and attempted over 200 more 3-pointers than it did last year.

WKU has connected on seven or more 3s in 20 different games this season. The team’s 77.1 percent mark from the free-throw line is the highest percentage in school history and ranks 17th in the country.

That hot shooting has been a process, Heard said, but it’s one reason WKU believes it has a chance against a Buckeyes team shooting 45.6 percent from the field and 35.1 percent from 3.

“If you watched us earlier in the season, there are times where we didn’t shoot the ball well at all,” Heard said. “As a team, you grow. I think that’s what this team has done. I do think that’s one of our strengths – that we have the opportunity for different people to score in multiple positions at different times.

“In the tournament last week, it really showed. I think we’re just playing really good basketball right now and I hope that we can continue to shoot the ball the way we do.”

In the C-USA tournament, it was Sidnee Bopp who emerged as the biggest scoring threat. After hitting just 19 3s in the regular season, the sophomore hit 12 of 23 long-range shots and reached double-digit scoring in all three games on her way to earning All-Tournament honors.

McGuff was quick to note along with WKU’s guards shooting well, the post players present an equal threat. Junior Ivy Brown as a 6-foot-1 forward leads the team in rebounding (8.2 rpg), but has hit 37-of-103 3-point attempts, good for 35.9 percent.

Junior Kyvin Goodin-Rogers, who will play her first game at Memorial Coliseum since transferring from Kentucky in the fall of 2015, is a 6-2 presence who has hit 24-of-79 (30.4 percent) long-range shots.

“They have a lot of versatility,” McGuff said. “Their post players can play away from the perimeter and away from the basket. That’s another thing that makes them extremely dangerous. Their post players can shoot the 3 really well. I think obviously we’ll have a plan, but we also have to be the best version of ourselves that we can be and that’s the most important thing we can do.”

That means relying on two-time Big 10 Player of the Year Kelsey Mitchell. The junior point guard averages 23 points per game and shoots 44.2 percent from the floor and 37.4 percent from behind the arc.

Ohio State is the fourth-highest scoring team in the country at 86.6 points per game. To beat the Buckeyes, WKU knows it can’t allow that type of shootout, even if shooting is one of its strengths.

WKU is averaging 9.6 steals per game and Ohio State is coughing up the ball on average of 13.9 times per contest.

“We’re going to have to be more defensive,” Heard said. “That’s the greatest thing about (Ohio State). Everybody speaks about Kelsey … but you look across the board, they have a ton of players that can score and do a lot of things. The way they press and get up and down the floor, they can score multiple points in a very short time.

“We’re going to have to follow the game plan and make sure we get back in defensive transition to guard everyone on the floor.”{&end}