Jim Mashek

HILLTOPPERS PLAY HOST TO LOUISIANA TECH ON SUNDAY BEFORE TWO-GAME ROAD SWING IN THE MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE

It’s all fluid, these days in sports.

Trends are established, and then tend to get twisted by social media. Limitations are understood, and coaches spend extra hours in their office figuring out their next move. Ultimately, though, winning shapes the narrative, and Western Kentucky men’s basketball appeared to be on shaky ground for awhile on Friday evening.

The Hilltoppers were playing at home, where they’d gone 5-1, albeit against a non-conference schedule of questionable strength. Second-year WKU head coach Hank Plona, however, will be the first guy to tell you that tends to get lost in the wash, once the calendar year turns and the Tops begin Conference USA play, from Newark, Delaware, all the way to Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Western Kentucky laid on egg in its C-USA opener, stumbling out of the gate before making a semblance of a move against Jacksonville State in NASCAR country. The Gamecocks were able to strut their stuff last week in Jacksonville, Alabama, claiming a workmanlike 78-67 victory over the Tops in their league debut.

Plona got his guys back in the gym.

Sam Houston State struck first, on Friday at WKU’s historic E.A. DIddle Arena, and the Bearkats started rainin’ 3s on the Tops, with little execution and seemingly less emotion from the home team.

Plona, I’m guessing, figured that had to stop.

He watched the Bearkats grab the lead, and hold it, for the entire first half. He railed against the three officials working the game — for the record, they were Barry Mathis, Rodrick ilxeron and James Curran — after a couple questionable calls, when the Hilltoppers started scrapping to get back into the game.

And then, with the Tops looking at a double-digit deficit going into halftime, WKU swingman Teagan Moore took matters into his own hands.

Moore got the ball in the final seconds and found a spot, in the middle of the floor, short of the mid-court line before letting it fly.

Bank. Basket. Bonkers.

It was definitely the lift the Tops needed.

And Western would roll with the momentum, bearing down on defense while Moore and WKU teammate Armelo Boone took control at the other end of the floor. So, instead of an 0-2 start heading into Sunday afternoon’s home game against Louisiana Tech, one of the teams on its way OUT of Conference USA after the 2025-26 academic year, the HIlltoppers evened their league record with a gritty 102-91 victory over the visitors from Huntsville, Texas.

(The erstwhile home of the Texas Prison Rodeo, a surrealistic spectacle my Dad took me and my three kid brothers to, back in the ’60s, but that’s another story for another day …)

Moore, Boone and WKU teammate Ryan Myers were able to jump-start the Hilltoppers’ offense, something they needed after a dismal first half on the defensive end of the floor. And once Moore made it happen as the horn sounded, before the intermission, the Tops gained a sense of purpose, and confidence, that would serve them well over the next couple months, heading into postseason play.

“I’m not sure if that was the prettiest 40 minutes of basketball,” WKU coach Hank Plona said in his postgame press conference. “We made some 3s, at the end of the first half, to hang around … Ryan (Myers) made a couple, and then Teagan (Moore) banked in that 3, from half-court. It’s crazy, how those are more than 3-point shots, it feels like.

“And when it happens to you … it’s brutal, because you’ve got to sit on it, for 15 minutes (at halftime).”

From there, however, the Hilltoppers looked like a different team.

They quickly cut into lead, and once they moved in front, they stayed there.

Moore, the sophomore swingman from Owen County High School, struck for a career-high 28 points, adding six rebounds and three assists. Boone, the precocious true freshman from Woodford County High School, was inserted into the starting lineup, and he responded with 16 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. And Myers, the 6-foot-1 graduate transfer making the third stop of his college career, had 18 points in just 18-plus minutes, making it a memorable evening for the Tops.

“Coach Hank challenged us, at hafltime,” Moore said. “That flipped the switch. We’re a very capable team, we know that … (The first half was) unacceptable. We weren’t going to let (Sam Houston) come in here, and punk us …”

Somebody cue up the Sex Pistols!

Anyway, a lot of Hilltoppers had a hand in their first victory in Conference USA play. Senior center Noah Boyde had a solid game, finishing with eight points, six rebounds and three steals. Grant Newell, the WKU senior forward from Chicago, put a foul-plague first half behind him and scored 12 points with six rebounds. The Tops’ Cam Haffner hit three 3-point field goals, and L.J. Hackman, the blur in the WKU backcourt, gave his team a lift with his energy.

All in all, it was a critical victory for a WKU team with plenty of ambition. The Hilltoppers needed some positive reinforcement, and they certainly got it.

Now the Tops will play host to Louisiana Tech, which is defecting to the Sun Belt Conference in June. The Bulldogs are 8-5 overall, and they’re 1-1 in C-USA play, after getting bulldozed in Murfreesboro, taking an 88-51 beating from MTSU.

WKU coach Hank Plona called the Bulldogs “an elite defensive team,” but he made that statement before the Blue Raiders buried La Tech with TWENTY-TWO 3-point field goals.

Let me repeat that, for emphasis.

The Blue Raiders buried La Tech with 3-pointers. And yes, there were 22 of ’em.

That isn’t WKU’s strength, though, and it isn’t like the Tops were going to be able to re-invent themselves in a 48-hour turnaround.

So opportunity is knocking, for the Hilltoppers, before they get on a plane for El Paso, Texas, later this week, and the two-game road swing against New Mexico State and UTEP.

But Plona had reason to be encouraged, after Friday’s victory over Sam Houston State.

“We showed a lot of toughness and grit,” he said.

That’s what the Tops will need against Louisiana Tech, and before they get on a plane later in the week. If nothing else, it’s a start.