Lady Topper Hopps: Lady Tops Stifle Evansville, 92–54

The Western Kentucky Lady Toppers continue to impress after defeating the Evansville Purple Aces (2–3), 92–54, on Thursday night in front of a home crowd of 1,078.

After a blistering start to the schedule against likely NCAA Tournament teams, WKU has been favored against some mid-major competition and has come out victorious in its past three outings. Mission accomplished.

Tashia Brown (20 points, six rebounds) is now 14 points away from reaching 1,500 for her career. Senior Ivy Brown (12 points, 10 rebounds) and freshman Raneem Elgedawy (19 points, 10 rebounds) both poured in double-doubles from the post, helping WKU dominate points in the paint, 56–16.

The Lady Toppers came out firing, spurting out leads of 15–3 and 24–7 after the first quarter. All told, the Lady Toppers managed to double-up the Purple Aces at the end of the first half, 52–26, despite the opponent shooting 50% from three in the first half and Hannah Noe nailing four three pointers early in the second quarter. Unbelievably, at the end of the first half, WKU had made as many shots as Evansville had attempted (22).

WKU came out of the locker room sluggishly, allowing Evansville to pull as close as 17 at 62–45 before WKU pocketed the Aces 30–9 the rest of the way.

In addition to Tashia Brown, Ivy Brown, and Raneem Elgedawy’s double digitsperformances, freshman Sherry Porter poured in 16 points and 7 assists.

WKU rises above .500 for the first time since the first game of the season. The Tops take nine days to focus on semester finals before setting out to continue their recent success against Southern Illinois on Sunday, December 10 at 2 p.m.

News and Notes

• Tashia Brown needs 14 points to reach 1,500 in her career on The Hill. Already 14th in program history, Tashia is looking to vault into the top 10 by season’s end. Brown would need to score 279 more points to accomplish this feat. At or near her current pace (21.9 ppg), Tashia would reach the top 10 in late January.
• Ivy Brown is on pace to grab over 300 rebounds in 2017–18, which would top any of her previous seasons on The Hill. At her current pace, she could flirt with 1,000 career rebounds. Ivy needs less than 100 boards the rest of the season to climb into the top 10 all time in rebounding. If her scoring increases, Ivy could finish in the top 15 in scoring and well inside the top 10 in rebounding and career blocks.
• Lady Topper sophomore Whitney Creech has stepped into a much larger role in 2017–18. Through the first seven games, she has increased her playing time by 21.4 minutes from 2016–17, her rebounds have spiked by 2.5, and her points have more than tripled, hurdling up from 3.8 to 11.9. She has started each game, while not starting a single game her freshman campaign.
• 6'4" Freshman Raneem Elgedawy has shown flashes of greatness, averaging 8.1 ppg despite only two of seven games in double figures. She has been consistent on the glass, however, snatching at least six boards in 5 of 7 games. Elgedawy contributes everywhere: She is 4th in minutes, 3rd in field goal percentage, 5th in scoring, 2nd in rebounds, 2nd in blocks, and is actually tied for 2nd in steals.
• The Lady Toppers are scoring 78 ppg in 2017–18. They give up 73 per contest.
• WKU forces over 18 turnovers, while only committing 12 per game.