Western Kentucky has had to grow up really fast.

Opening the season against teams from Power 5 conferences for a Lady Toppers squad that entered without much experience has forced them to find out how they measure up against ranked competition.

After battling toe-to-toe with No. 6 Notre Dame, it’s safe to say WKU likes where its program stands three games into the year.

Notre Dame held off WKU 78-65 Tuesday night at E.A. Diddle Arena in front of 5,061 fans. The Fighting Irish never trailed, but the Lady Toppers (1-2) tied the game twice early on and always kept within a dangerous run of shifting momentum.

Three opponents in and WKU has a win against then-No. 16 Missouri and a close overtime loss at Iowa. Keeping up with the elites of women’s basketball like Notre Dame is becoming WKU’s new expectation.

“This is what it was about when we made the schedule to see where we’re at as a program and it showed us a lot today and showed us a lot in these past three games, and I think we’re getting close,” WKU coach Michelle Clark-Heard said. “We’ve just got to continue to keep building and bringing in players and that’s our most important thing.”

Although WKU is 3-7 against ranked teams under Heard, none of those seven losses were complete blowouts. NCAA Tournament losses to Baylor (2014), Texas (2015) and Ohio State (2017) have been tight battles that came within a WKU possession or two of changing the outcome.

The job the Lady Toppers’ sixth-year head coach has done has drawn praise from coaches who normally handle first-round tournament games with ease.

WKU earned high respect from Notre Dame’s Hall of Fame coach Muffet McGraw, whose Fighting Irish got a true road test in front of the largest gathering for a women’s basketball game at Diddle Arena in over a decade.

“We did a lot of good things, but they’re a really good team,” McGraw said. “I’m really impressed by the job Michelle is doing. They’re well-coached. Their zone gave us a lot of trouble and they are a very good team that is going to do a lot of damage in the conference.”

Outside of WKU’s poor shooting with 22-of-74 shots made from the floor, Notre Dame didn’t overwhelm WKU in any category it was expected to besides a 50-32 advantage in points in the paint. Jessica Shepard, a 6-foot-4 All-Big 10 transfer from Nebraska, had a lot to do with that with 19 points and 12 rebounds.

The Lady Toppers outrebounded Notre Dame on the offensive glass 25-22 and forced 18 turnovers against their 11.

The largest lead the Fighting Irish built was 14 points in the last three minutes after WKU’s 6-1 forward Ivy Brown fouled out of the game with just two points.

Whitney Creech stepped up for 17 points and 6-4 freshman Raneem Elgedawy had 12 points and brought in nine rebounds while playing the fourth quarter with four fouls.

“We’ve had different people step up these three games and had a lot of people score points for us and do the little things,” Creech said. “We’ve learned this team is pretty good right now, and we’ve got a lot of fight in us and no matter who we’re playing, we’ll go out there and give our best efforts.”

FANS PACK DIDDLE

Heard couldn’t help but stand in awe of the crowd that filed into Diddle Arena during warmups and for the national anthem prior to WKU hosting No. 6 Notre Dame on Tuesday night. Prior to that game, the largest non-Education Day crowd to watch WKU was 3,725 against Louisville in 2013 when the Cardinals were ranked No. 4 in the country.

McGraw said she wished a few more of those fans were wearing green, but added the importance for her Fighting Irish team to play in road environments like the one created in Diddle Arena.

“It was a great crowd,” McGraw said. “I think it’s important that we take our team on the road to places like this and have a great atmosphere for women’s basketball. I thought it was a great game for the fans and I appreciate them all coming out.”

Right after the game was over, Heard grabbed a microphone from the bench to thank the fans for coming out.

“I’m excited I had the opportunity to coach against coach McGraw and this atmosphere and I just want to thank everybody again that came out,” Heard said. “It meant a lot to our program. Just thanking the marketing and everyone here that did everything they could to get everyone in the seats. It was an awesome atmosphere.”

IRISH SHUT DOWN BROWN

WKU kept the game close despite the Fighting Irish completely eliminating Ivy Brown from becoming a factor.

Brown was held scoreless in the first half and finally scored at the 7:03 mark of the third quarter. The Hodgenville native fouled out with 1:24 remaining and had just two points on 1-of-6 shooting with nine rebounds.

McGraw said Notre Dame spent a lot of time preparing to eliminate Brown’s 3-point shot and pointed out it took longer than expected for her to get the fifth foul because WKU played more zone. Brown missed all four 3-point attempts and added a pair of assists, two blocks and two steals to her stat line.

“We actually worried about guarding her from the 3-point line and I think that’s what we spent most of our time on,” McGraw said. “We didn’t do a good job of finding her and I think that zone protected her. We had a hard time finding her to get that fifth foul.”

NOTES

Michelle Clark-Heard is now 131-41 in six seasons as WKU’s head coach. … WKU is now 3-7 against ranked teams under Heard. … WKU falls to 0-2 against Notre Dame. … WKU lost back-to-back games in the same season for the first time since November 2014. … WKU finished 18-of-20 (90 percent) from the free-throw line. … Creech matched her career-high mark with 17 points. … Tashia Brown’s 13-of-14 mark from the free-throw line marked a new career high in free throws made and attempted. … The attendance of 5,061 was the largest non-Education Day crowd inside E.A. Diddle Arena since WKU hosted 5,563 on Nov. 19, 2005.{&end}