Jim Mashek

WESTERN TAKES 8-1 RECORD TO WINLESS LOUISVILLE

Western Kentucky point guard Davyion McKnight is known for his game, his quickness, his toughness.

All of those attributes came into play in the Hilltoppers’ grind-it-out victory over Wright State University on Saturday night.

An efficient McKnight hit 13 of 17 shots, striking for 32 points to lead Western past a dogged Wright State squad, 64-60, before a paid crowd of 4,010 at WKU’s E.A. Diddle Arena.

That’s right, the 6-foot-1 junior from Shelbyville, Kentucky, scored half of the Hilltoppers’ points.

Western Kentucky outlasted Austin Peay State, 65-64, on November 30 in Clarksville, Tennessee, and the 10-day hiatus seemed to limit its overall effectiveness against Wright State, an NCAA Tournament team last season.

And McKnight has made it clear this season.

It’s time for WKU to get back to the NCAA Tournament.

“We knew this was going to be a tough game … for a lot of reasons,” WKU coach Rick Stansbury said. “Wright State is a good basketball team. They came off two tough losses (to Robert Morris and Youngstown State). We knew their coaches were going to be up, coming into this game and we didn’t have very good preparation coming into this game the last 10 days.

“You’ve got to find ways to dig in and McKnight was terrific. He put us on his back and carried us tonight when we weren’t at our best.”

Stansbury is in his seventh season on The Hill and understands what’s expected of his team as well as anyone. He guided Mississippi State to the NCAA Tournament six times, most recently in 2009, and he was Richard Williams’ lead assistant when the Bulldogs reached the Final Four in 1996.

He’s still shooting for his first trip to the NCAA Tournament at Western, and Stansbury has acknowledged this team has the talent to make that happen.

In fact, he’s had to do a balancing act with a deep bench.

But when all else fails, which was sometimes the case on Saturday night, the Hilltoppers have learned to lean on Dayvion McKnight.

His scoreline was off the charts.

McKnight hit 13 of 17 shots and came within a field goal of matching his career high of 34 points. He played a game-high 35 minutes and hit six of seven free throws and had four rebounds, four steals and three assists. Four turnovers.

One victory.

One much needed victory.

“It was a team effort,” McKnight said. “Guys seeing me when I was open. I was just knocking down shots. My teammates were taking great shots … They just weren’t falling for everybody, but like I said, it was a team effort.

“(His WKU teammates) were setting me up, in the right position.”

Stansbury pointed to the Hilltoppers’ 3-of-18 showing from the 3-point line — Wright State wasn’t much better, hitting 3 of 16 shots from downtown — as the impetus for McKnight’s memorable night.

“It turned into a grind-it-out game,” Stansbury said. “We didn’t shoot 3s (well) … Davyion had that mid-range game going, to bail us out.”

On the surface, this seems to be a resourceful WKU squad.

The Hilltoppers will travel to face Louisville on Wednesday night at the Yum! Center. The Cardinals, hard as it seems to believe, are winless in nine games. This is clearly a transitional season at The ‘Ville.

And the Cardinals will have nothing to lose when Western comes to town.

Western Kentucky knocked off visiting Louisville, 82-72, last December at Diddle Arena. The upset boosted WKU’s record to 8-4, and a trip to the NCAA Tournament seemed like a real possibility.

Then Western lost six of its first eight Conference USA games before bowing out of the conference tournament in first-round play, a 59-57 loss to Louisiana Tech in Frisco, Texas.

Stansbury and his coaching staff retooled the squad, and when Dayvion McKnight and 7-foot-6 center Jamarion Sharp entered the NCAA’s transfer portal, in March, things looked pretty gloomy.

Of course, both of them decided to come back, to WKU, and their mere presence makes the Hilltoppers a team that could make some noise NEXT March.

Particularly in Sharp’s case.

“We didn’t have very good preparation, the last 10 days,” WKU’s Rick Stansbury said. “We had guys out, sick. Emmanuel (Akot), Luke (Frampton) … Jamarion had a turned ankle from the Austin Peay game. He wasn’t at his best.

“It turned into a grind-it-out game.”

Sharp “wasn’t at his best,” Stansbury admitted, against Wright State, but he still made a considerable difference. He had four blocked shots, and five rebounds, in 27 minutes, and his one field goal came at a critical time.

WKU’s Emmanuel Akot, the smooth-shooting wingman from Winnipeg, Manitoba, drew the Wright State defense to the perimeter before firing a pass to Sharp underneath.

Sharp brought the crowd to its feet with a resounding dunk, and the Hilltoppers led 59-53 with less than four minutes remaining.

Akot had 12 points and two of the Hilltoppers’ three 3-pointers. (Senior guard Luke Frampton had the other). Wright State’s Trey Colvin led his team with 20 points, and teammates A.J. Braun and Omari Davis added 12 and 10, respectively.

In the game’s final minute, Wright State twice had a chance to make it a single-possession game, and Jamarion Sharp’s mere presence prolonged their indecisiveness on the perimeter.

The Hilltoppers could claim a victory they might not have come up with, in 2021-22, or in any recent season, for that matter.

“Jamar’s presence out there, it’s always a factor,” Stansbury said. “You’ve got to find ways to win, and in this case, it was with toughness and defense.”

With Daymion McKnight running the show, and Jamarion Sharp operating under the basket, the Hilltoppers can make that happen.