WITH 25 POINTS AND SEVEN REBOUNDS.
WKU RESUMES HOSTILITIES WITH MTSU ON THURSDAY
It’s been a season of perpetual change for the Western Kentucky men’s basketball team.
Optimism was sky-high in November, but a swoon over the Christmas break seemed to change everything. Plus, seventh-year WKU coach Rick Stansbury had to take medical leave, for nearly a month, and the losses started to mount.
Then, on January 21, sixth-year senior guard Luke Frampton sustained a torn ACL in the opening moments of a Conference USA game with visiting Charlotte. The Hilltoppers would lose that game, 75-71, before going on the road and dropping back-to-back games to Florida International and Florida Atlantic.
Stansbury returned for Thursday night’s home game against Texas-San Antonio, and Dontaie Allen busted out in his first WKU career start. The redshirt junior transfer from the University of Kentucky struck for a career-high 22 points, sending the Hilltoppers to an 81-74 victory over the Roadrunners. On Saturday afternoon, the 6-foot-6 Allen was back in the Western lineup for a home game against the University of Texas-El Paso.
“We believed in Dontaie,” Stansbury said, “but he just hasn’t played that much …”
That’s all starting to change.
Allen hit 8 of 15 shots from the field, including a 5-of-8 showing from the 3-point line, while scoring a game-high 25 points in Western’s workmanlike 74-69 victory over UTEP before a paid crowd of 4,169 at WKU’s E.A. Diddle Arena.
FOR NEARLY THE ENTIRE FIRST HALF.
AGAINST UTEP’s OTIS FRAZIER III.
An NCAA mandated suspension for the first seven games didn’t help, but Allen was getting inconsistent minutes after joining the Hilltoppers around Thanksgiving. Frampton’s injury forced an offensive reset, along with Stansbury’s return to the sideline.
The ‘Toppers are limping along at 13-11 overall, not to mention a 5-8 record in Conference USA play. But they’ve still got seven games to work with, before the Conference USA Tournament begins March 8 in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
THE FLIGHT OF DONTAIE ALLEN’s 3-POINTER.
The Miners led for nearly the entire first half, but Allen and the Hilltoppers were poised to strike quickly after the break.
Allen scored in a variety of ways, getting hot from the left wing beyond the 3-point line, and the Hilltoppers took control over the final 20 minutes. Sturdy point guard Dayvion McKnight scored all but two of his 14 points in the second half, and 7-foot-5 WKU center Jamarion Sharp finished with a game-high 11 rebounds and six blocked shots.
It was a winning formula, but it remains to be seen if it can help change the narrative for the stretch run of the season.
AND DAYVION McKNIGHT AFTER THE GAME.
“Honestly, it feels great,” Allen said in the postgame press conference. “It’s a testament to everybody staying together, especially down the stretch. We’re trying to survive … everybody reiterates staying together, staying positive.”
Allen and sixth-year WKU swingman Emmanuel Akot are more than capable 3-point shooters, but Stansbury no longer has the deep bench he envisioned for this team in November. On Saturday, Western’s five starters stayed on the floor for nearly 12 minutes without a single substitution.
“We were going to ride them ’til the wheels fell off,” Stansbury said.
A LOOSE BALL IN THE GAME’s FINAL MOMENTS.
Akot played nearly 38 minutes and had 13 points for the game. Allen had 25 points and seven rebounds in about 34 minutes and McKnight hit some critical free throws down the stretch, finishing with 14 points, four assists and three rebounds.
Sharp’s presence helped the Hilltoppers maintain their lead for the bulk of the second half. Jordan Rawls had eight points off the WKU bench, and Jairus Hamilton gives the team plenty of energy and a boost on the boards.
“Our guys stepped up to the challenge, offensively,” Stansbury said.
IS OUT WITH A TORN ACL.
IS AVERAGING 16.5 POINTS PER GAME.
UTEP burned the Tops from 3-point range in the first half, hitting 6 of 10 shots behind the line before the break. Shamar Givance led the Miners with 18 points, but he scored only six points in the second half. UTEP’s Otis Frazier III also was effective from the perimeter and finished with 17 points and five rebounds.
Allen opened the second half with a drive to the basket that cut the Hilltoppers’ deficit to two points, and Hamilton had a three-point play before Akot gave the Hilltoppers their first lead since the game’s opening moments with a stop-and-pop field goal. Allen got the hot hand from the left side of the floor, on both sides of the 3-point line, and the Hilltoppers seemed to follow suit.
“There’s no question Dontaie is a pretty confident guy right now,” Stansbury said.
HIT 6 OF 10 3-POINTERS IN THE FIRST HALF.
EIGHT POINTS OFF THE BENCH.
Western kept the Miners at arms’ length for nearly the entire second half, giving the Hilltoppers some much needed momentum going into Thursday night’s home game against longtime rival Middle Tennessee State.
MTSU turned the tables on WKU in the second half on New Year’s Eve in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, claiming a 65-60 victory while Rick Stansbury was sidelined with an undisclosed illness.
Stansbury insisted he’s ready to put his absence in the rear-view mirror.
“I’m feeling good … full speed ahead,” Stansbury said.
WITH 97 BLOCKED SHOTS ON THE SEASON.
That carries over to the WKU players, too.
“It all goes back to staying together, staying locked in,” Allen said.
The Hilltoppers retired the number of the late WKU star Dwight Smith, a 1960s era forward from Princeton, Kentucky who was one of the first Black athletes to play for Western after integration. Smith died in an auto crash, shortly after being drafted by the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers. Smith was represented by his family during a halftime ceremony on the Diddle Arena floor.
“To come out here,” Rick Stansbury said, “and find a way to win a game with toughness – and that’s who (Dwight Smith) was, from what everybody says, about his toughness.
“It’s pretty special.”
ON THURSDAY NIGHT AT DIDDLE ARENA.