WKU DROPS FIFTH STRAIGHT GAME; STANSBURY REMAINS SIDELINED
Western Kentucky’s season of promise has hit the skids.
The Hilltoppers, again without veteran head coach Rick Stansbury because of illness, dropped their fifth straight game on Thursday night. The University of North Texas used a deliberate, 3-point shooting attack to take control early before turning back the Hilltoppers in the final three minutes, winning 70-66 before a paid crowd of 3,024 at WKU’s Diddle Arena.
FOR AILING WKU HEAD COACH RICK STANSBURY.
MEETS WITH OFFICIALS BEFORE THE GAME.
Western fell to 8-6 overall and 0-3 in Conference USA play. The Hilltoppers haven’t won a game in nearly a month, when they slipped past Wright State 64-60 at Diddle Arena on December 10.
North Texas improved to 12-3 overall and 3-1 in Conference USA play.
Associate head coach Phil Cunningham, who was on Stansbury’s staff at Mississippi State before becoming the head coach at Troy University, filled in for Stansbury for the third consecutive game.
“These guys are fighting,” Cunningham said of the Hilltoppers. “They’re in a storm right now … They’re going to come out of this storm.”
Western fell behind 21-2 in the game’s first four minutes, as North Texas started hitting 3-pointers while the Hilltoppers struggled to get anything going on offense. North Texas outrebounded WKU 26-9 in the first half; none of the Hilltoppers’ nine rebounds were on the offensive end of the floor.
WITH ITS DELIBERATE OFFENSE.
The Mean Green was pretty much limiting WKU to a single shot before working the shot clock down to single digits and finding the open man at the 3-point line. Senior guard Tylor Perry, a 5-foot-11 sharpshooter from Fort Coffee, Oklahoma, hit 7 of 16 shots — including a 3-of-8 showing from 3-point land — and led the Mean Green with 22 points, four assists and four rebounds.
“This game was decided in the first 10 minutes,” Cunningham said.
HAD A GAME-HIGH 29 POINTS.
Junior guard Dayvion McKnight got Western back into the game in the second half, almost by himself. McKnight played a team-high 36-plus minutes, finishing with a game-high 29 points — on 8-of-16 shooting — along with five rebounds, two steals and four turnovers.
Jairus Hamilton had 16 points and five rebounds for the Hilltoppers, and former University of Kentucky forward Dontaie Allen played 16 minutes, finishing with eight points and three rebounds.
“We tried not to let their (deliberate, patient offensive) game affect us,” McKnight said. “The start of the game was slow, for us. We’ve just got to keep working hard, have the same mindset in practice.”
WITH IMPROVED DEFENSIVE PLAY.
North Texas forward Aaron Scott finished the game with 11 points, while teammates Kai Huntsberry and Rubin Jones both added nine points. The Mean Green hit 7 of 14 3-pointers in the second half, while Western was 0-for-8 behind the line after halftime.
For the game, North Texas hit 11 of 26 3-pointers (42.3 percent), while Western went a dismal 3-for-14 (21.4 percent). The Hilltoppers played better defensively, after halftime, and actually trailed by only four points with about 90 seconds left in the game.
Cunningham said the Hilltoppers are not likely to have Rick Stansbury back for Saturday afternoon’s road game against Texas-Antonio. The team left Bowling Green for Texas on Thursday night, and they’ll have practice at UTSA’s 4,100-seat arena, the Convocation Center, on Friday afternoon.
“There’s no moral victories around here,” Cunningham said. “Our guys understand that. We didn’t have to tell ’em. We’ve just got to win a game.”
