Jim Mashek

HILLTOPPERS TAKE FIRST HOME LOSS OF SEASON; WKU PLAYS HOST TO MTSU ON SATURDAY NIGHT

For thirty-four minutes, 52 seconds, Western Kentucky University’s mens basketball team played with a lead.

There were anxious moments, to be sure. But the Hilltoppers generally seemed to have the upper hand. Then, with just under eight minutes left, junior WKU point guard Don McHenry drove through the Sam Houston State defense and hit a short jumper in front of the basket. He was fouled, too, but after a TV timeout, McHenry missed the foul shot and the Tops still led by eight points, 66-58.

That bulge evaporated in a hurry.

It was nip-and-tuck the rest of the way, Western Kentucky and the visiting Bearkats from Huntsville, Texas, both looking for the knockout punch. And it came in the final minute of the game, sending Sam Houston State to a dramatic 79-77 victory over the Hilltoppers on Thursday night before a crowd of 3,757 at E.A. Diddle Arena.

“It came down to a play at the end of the game,” WKU coach Steve Lutz said.

The Hilltoppers tied the game at 77 on Brandon Newman’s inside basket with 48 seconds left in the game. Sam Houston used a deliberate approach, to find a good shot, before 3-point specialist Cameron Huefner had to beat the shot clock with a deep 3 from the left wing.

The ball caught air, and nothing else, until the Bearkats’ Lamar Wilkerson slipped in behind a couple WKU defenders and secured the rebound. Wilkerson went up quickly, using the glass for the winning put-back, a basket that sealed Western Kentucky’s first home loss of the 2023-24 season.

The Tops used a timeout with 17.6 seconds before senior forward Tyrone Marshall missed a baseline drive. WKU had one foul to give before putting SHSU’s Marcus Boykin at the free-throw line with 5.5 seconds left in the game.

Boykin missed the front end, however, and the Toppers had a chance to pull it out. Enoch Kalambay got the ball in the front court before dumping it off to WKU teammate Don McHenry, the team’s leading scorer. McHenry had a good look at the basket, from about 27 feet out, but his 3-point try rimmed out, and the Bearkats could savor a two-game sweep of the Hilltoppers.

“When it left Don’s hands, it looked pretty good to me,” Lutz said.

It was that kind of night for the Hilltoppers. WKU dropped to 14-7 overall, and again the Tops have a losing record in Conference USA play, at 3-4. They’ll play host to longtime rival Middle Tennessee State on Saturday night. Sam Houston State, formerly of the Southland Conference, improved to 13-9 overall and most important, 6-1 in Conference USA games.

“They did a good job tonight,” Lutz said. “You can’t win with the kind of defensive lapses we had. We’ve got to be better, so it doesn’t come down to one play.”

Sam Houston was most effective with its 3-point game. Cameron Huefner, an Aussie who’s playing with his third college team, hit four of nine 3-pointers. Junior guard Devin Barnes carried the Bearkats in the early going, and he went 3-for-6 from 3-point range, leading Sam Houston with 21 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

Heufner was next, with 18 points, while junior guard Damon Nicholas added 14.

“They got good guard play,” WKU swingman Brandon Newman said. “They made the ‘effort’ and ‘hustle’ plays.”

WKU again was without starting guard Khristian Lander, who apparently had a setback while in concussion protocol. He wasn’t even on the bench for Thursday night’s game, with the protocol in mind. Don McHenry, the former junior-college star from Milwaukee, led the Hilltoppers with 21 points, and senior center Rodney Howard — a transfer from Georgia Tech — had a strong game off the bench, finishing with 17 points and six rebounds in 23 minutes-plus on the floor.

It was the defensive lapses that will ultimately haunted the Hilltoppers.

“They got a lot of second-chance buckets down the stretch,” Newman said.

After an early sequence of lead changes, Western Kentucky led for nearly 35 minutes of the game. The Tops struggled at times with shot selection, rushing to put it up in the early stages of the shot clock on occasion. The Hilltoppers used moves to the basket for field goals from Tyrone Marshall and Enoch Kalambay to get their lead back to seven points, but Sam Houston State outscored Lutz’s squad, 21-11, over the final eight minutes of the game.

“We did not get enough movement within our motion offense,” Lutz said, “and I thought that we didn’t get enough movement against their zone, either. We shot a lot of quick 3s, in the first half. Luckily, we made some of them. And then, in the second half, you shoot 2 of 10 (from 3-point range) … when we watch that film, it’s going to come down to defense, and it’s going to come down to rebounding.”

It was a tough loss for the Tops, any way you slice it. They’ll be back to square off with former Ohio Valley Conference rival MTSU (8-13 overall, 2-4 in C-USA) at E.A. Diddle Arena on Saturday. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m.

“When you get into conference play, it’s a battle of wills … We let (Sam Houston) back in the game,” Lutz said. “I’m sure (MTSU) Coach (Nick) McDavitt will have those dudes ready to play … Saturday night is the most important thing we’ve got to think about right now.”