Hilltoppers look to get back in win column as they travel to Huntington
Happy Valentines Day, Hilltoppers! Whether you have a special someone, or you’re taking today as “Singles Awareness Day,” I have good news for you! The Hilltoppers are back in action after a week off! Hurray!!
It certainly does feel like its been forever, doesn’t it, since the Tops last took the court, before they stunk up the place with their play over Rice? Okay, maybe that’s a bit harsh. It wasn’t too poor of a second half performance…
Anyway, today the Tops are in Huntington as they look to get back to their winning ways over a Marshall team that is playing really well as of late. What at one point in the season seemed like a sure-fired win for WKU now looks more and more like a surprisingly difficult road test, as the Herd are winners of four of their last five, dropping only a contest to the Techsters from Ruston.
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If you’ll recall, the Tops and Herd first tangoed for WKU’s first ever Conference USA conference hoops game, and it wound up being a victorious day for the Tops, winning 81-62.
T.J. Priceand
George Fantof course, lead the way in scoring, as T.J. netted 25 and George was in the second game of his long double-double streak, grabbing 12 boards to go along with 14 points.
If there’s one thing Marshall likes to do, it’s shoot the three ball. Unfortunately, not only are they not very good at it, but they shoot it so much, that their stats are negatively padded to say how poor they are from the arc. They have taken the most three-point shots in Conference USA this year, but are also last in three-point percentage, so if the Tops want to take the Herd out of the game early, force them to shoot threes.
The one area of this game that, on paper, is the most competitive is rebounds. Marshall ranks 28th in the nation in rebounds per game (38.4), while the Tops are 32nd in the country (38.2) Point of emphasis for both teams – if the opponent misses a shot, grab the board. (Although, it is worth noting the Tops outrebounded Marshall 41-32 back in Diddle.)
The home stretch of the season for WKU begins tonight, and if they want to stay atop the conference, they’ll need to make sure they’re focused and not take a surging Herd (hey, the Surgin’ Herd! No? Okay…) team for granted.
What are your keys to the game? Who will have to have a big game for the Tops to ensure a win? Let us know in a comment below or on twitter @WaveTheRedTowel.