Western Kentucky believes it can play with any team in the country.

And why not?

The Lady Toppers this season played tight with two teams that finished in the final Associated Press top 25 poll and beat a Power 5 team that was ranked 23rd at the time.

Two previous trips to the NCAA Tournament under coach Michelle Clark-Heard have shown WKU can keep up with, and nearly beat, the nation’s best.

That opportunity presents itself again Friday when 12th-seeded WKU plays 5-seed Ohio State in Lexington for the first round of the women’s NCAA Tournament. The game will air on ESPN2.

“The past two games in the NCAA we’ve played great teams and hung right there with them,” redshirt senior Micah Jones said. “I don’t expect this year to be any different. I think our team is confident the way we’ve been playing and I think it’s going to carry over.”

WKU (27-6) is confident, but so is Ohio State (26-6).

The Buckeyes, ranked 11th in the last AP poll, won a share of the Big 10 regular-season title and took a 12-game winning streak into the Big 10 quarterfinals before losing to Purdue.

Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff is taking his team to its third straight NCAA Tournament after losing to Tennessee in the Sweet 16 last year.

McGuff isn’t taking the Lady Toppers lightly. He knows that two years ago as a 15-seed, WKU traveled to Baylor and hung tight in a 13-point loss. He knows two years ago as a 12-seed that the Lady Toppers were one 3-pointer away from upsetting fifth-seeded Texas out in Berkeley, Calif.

And even last year, WKU made a run to the quarterfinals of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.

In early November, WKU beat then 23rd-ranked Indiana in E.A. Diddle Arena, lost by just seven points at Louisville – a 4-seed this year – and lost by eight points on a neutral court against DePaul, a 7-seed.

McGuff said WKU is “used to winning” and that a 5 vs. 12 matchup always presents the ingredients for an upset.

“It’s always a tricky matchup,” McGuff told the Daily News in a phone interview on Wednesday. “The biggest thing is Western Kentucky is used to winning. They’re used to winning in the regular season and used to winning in the NCAA Tournament. We’re playing a team that is going to be prepared and they’re used to winning, so we have to make sure we that we bring our A-game.

“They can really score the ball. They play fast and they’ve got great guard play. They move the ball well and they shoot the 3 really well. I think the key for us is our defense and ability to try to stop them.”

Three of Ohio State’s six losses are to No. 1-seeded teams in this year’s field of 64: UConn, Baylor and South Carolina. Fourth-seeds Miami and Purdue and 9-seed Michigan State round out the Buckeyes’ only six losses.

Junior Kelsey Mitchell is the motor that makes Ohio State run with 23 points per game, good for seventh-best in the country.

Stephanie Mayunga, a 6-foot-3 forward, averages a double-double at 11.8 points and 11.3 rebounds per game, but has been out the past month with a foot injury.

McGuff said Mayunga has made a lot of progress, but said she would be a game-time decision.

Taller players from bigger conferences has always been an obstacle WKU has had to overcome. The Buckeyes have five players standing 6-2 or taller, while the Lady Toppers feature just two players at 6-2: junior Kyvin Goodin-Rogers and freshman Sarah Price, who hasn’t played since December with a knee injury.

“I think we probably have the advantage of being quicker than them, so that’s where we’re going to have to take advantage of,” senior Kendall Noble said. “I think just being smart and not getting our bigs in foul trouble, they know we need them more this game than in earlier games.”

Noble, like she’s done most of her career, is a player McGuff said is “a really hard matchup.”

Noble leads WKU with 16.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game. She averaged close to those numbers in three games during the Conference USA tournament on her way to earning the Most Valuable Player honor.

“The thing I like about her is not only can she score, but she makes others better,” McGuff said. “She makes winning plays. She does a lot of stuff that really impacts the game for them. That’s a tough matchup for us.

“I don’t think we’re going to stop her, but we want to not let her go totally wild because she’s so capable of having such a big night.”

WKU is 0-2 all-time against Ohio State, with both losses coming in the postseason. The two schools last met in the 2001 WNIT with the Buckeyes winning in Diddle Arena. The first meeting occurred in the 1993 NCAA Tournament.

For WKU to get its first win in the tournament since 2000 and its first against Ohio State, there aren’t many things it must do differently.

According to Heard, you dance with what got you there.

“The most important thing is we’re going to have to play our style of basketball and we’re going to have to rebound,” Heard said following the selection show on Monday. “When teams are bigger than you, you have to make sure you can rebound and that’s one thing I’d like to do. Kelsey Mitchell is a great player, but we’re going to have to figure out how to slow her down.

“If we can do those things and put a game plan together and come out and play with confidence like we did in the tournament, I like our chances of being able to compete.”

Probable starters

Western Kentucky – Tashia Brown, f, 6-0, jr. (13.4 ppg, 4.1 rpg); Kendall Noble, g, 5-11, r-sr. (16.1 ppg, 6.2 rpg); Ivy Brown, f, 6-1, jr. (13.3 ppg, 8.2 rpg); Micah Jones, g, 5-8, r-sr. (6.9 ppg, 4.1 apg); Kyvin Goodin-Rogers, f, 6-2, r-jr. (8 ppg, 3.9 rpg).

Ohio State – Kelsey Mitchell, g, 5-8, jr. (23 ppg, 2.8 rpg); Tori McCoy, f, 6-4, fr. (7.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg); Shayla Cooper, f, 6-2, sr. (10.5 ppg, 6.3 rpg); Sierra Calhoun, g, 6-0, r-so. (9.7 ppg, 3.5 rpg); Kiara Lewis, g, 5-8, fr. (7.1 ppg, 1.6 rpg).

Television: ESPN2

Radio: ESPN 102.7 FM or 1450 AM

Coaches Michelle Clark-Heard (130-38 fifth year; 154-70 overall), Western Kentucky; Kevin McGuff (93-43 fourth year; 348-141 overall) Ohio State.

Series Record: Ohio State leads the series 2-0 (OSU won the last meeting 70-61 on March 20, 2001 in the WNIT at Diddle Arena).

Last time out: Western Kentucky won 67-56 against Southern Mississippi in the Conference USA championship on Saturday; Ohio State lost 71-60 to Purdue in the Big 10 Tournament on March 4).{&end}