That “fine line” between winning and losing has been a recurring topic for Western Kentucky men’s basketball coach Rick Stansbury this season.

Often enough this season, particularly on the road but also on neutral courts and even regularly at home, there has been precious little to distinguish whether the Tops pick up the W or add another to the L column.

Earlier this season, WKU (18-12 overall, 11-6 Conference USA) showed a distressing tendency to not finish after strong starts against C-USA rivals. In each of the Hilltoppers’ first four conference defeats, they led at halftime and at one point by as many as nine – the first three losses came by a combined five points when they held leads of 15 or more.

The Hilltoppers have thrived by getting to the free-throw line with startling regularity with an offense featuring heavy doses of sophomore guard Taveion Hollingsworth’s mid-range game, sophomore Josh Anderson’s slash-and-flash talent for driving in the lane, timely 3-pointers from redshirt junior wing Jared Savage and of course an ultra-productive post presence in the form of freshman sensation Charles Bassey.

Bassey, the Tops’ security blanket extraordinaire who entered Sunday’s 76-71 home win over Southern Miss averaging team-highs of 15 points and 10 rebounds, was a game-time decision to even play after not practicing the past two games as he recovered from a knee injury suffered in Thursday’s win at Alabama-Birmingham.

As it was, Bassey had one of the more quiet offensive outings of his brief college career with nine points – all in the first half – along with seven rebounds and four blocks.

Southern Miss, the smallest team in the C-USA this year, had little choice but to pack in the paint and try to deny Bassey the ball. It worked too, as Bassey attempted just four shots.

It’s not a strategy unknown against post-dominant teams, but the Golden Eagles’ full commitment to making WKU beat them from the outside forced the Tops to look elsewhere for offense.

In the first half, redshirt senior point guard Lamonte Bearden took matters into his own hands for the Tops. With a bird’s-eye view of the Golden Eagles’ collapse-in-the-paint policy, Bearden three times stopped and popped from the top of the key for 3-pointers. He finished the game with a career-high four treys among his 13 points.

Savage, who’d been quiet with an 0-for-3 showing from beyond the arc in the first half, got going early in the second by drilling his first 3-pointer four minutes in, then another minute later as the Tops whipped the ball around the floor to find a wide-open look. Less than a minute later, they repeated the feat and Hollingsworth nailed another open trey to push WKU’s lead to 51-47.

Bearden capped WKU’s run of five straight 3-pointers with another from the top of the key. A pair of Hollingsworth’s trademark pull-up jumpers in the lane had the Tops ahead by eight at 58-50 with 12:24 to go.

WKU has been susceptible to the second-half run this season, and Southern Miss made one with a 9-0 spurt to tie it back up at 61.

It was nip-and-tuck from there, with Western never trailing but still just up one with 43 seconds left before Bearden snapped a one-handed cross-court pass to Savage in the corner for one final 3-pointer that proved decisive. The Tops finished 11-of-23 from 3-point range in the win, just one off their season-high of 12 triples hit against Charlotte on Jan. 3.

“It’s a big difference,” Hollingsworth said. “If we hit shots, it’s going to be easier for Charles to score. If Charles can score, then it’s going to be easier for us to score because they aren’t going to be focused on one thing.”

The victory clinched a first-round bye in next week’s C-USA Tournament, a huge help for a Tops squad whose “fine line” is the razor’s edge of winning the tournament outright or most likely sitting at home in March. Just one regular-season game remains with Wednesday’s 6:30 p.m. matchup against UTSA at E.A. Diddle Arena, an opportunity to lock in the No. 2 seed in the C-USA Tournament.

The Tops will take a win next week in Frisco, Texas, anyway they can get it, and Sunday against the Golden Eagles they found another way to get it done.{&end}