Lady Eagles Come Out on Top at WKU

Thursday, January 24

Bowling Green, Ky. / E.A. Diddle Arena

6 p.m.

Southern Miss

-1010 (25 CUSA

Western Kentucky

-119 (51 CUSA)

Southern Miss

WKU

Lady Eagles Come Out on Top at WKU

1/24/2019 8:33:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Southern Miss broke the Lady Toppers' 22 consecutive conference wins in Diddle Arena.

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Lady Eagles had a thrilling game against WKU, winning 69-56 for only the second time in E.A. Diddle Arena.

Southern Miss (10-10, 2-5) broke a 22 consecutive conference game win streak in Diddle Arena for the Lady Toppers of WKU, but that was only one of the noteworthy feats for the Lady Eagles in their win on Thursday night.

The Lady Eagles were led by junior Respect Leaphart who broke her career high in both points and rebounds with her double-double producing performance against WKU, posting 24 points and 11 rebounds. She was 2-for-3 from the 3-point arc and 6-for-8 from the free throw line. Kelsey Jones had another double-double performance, her third this season, with 14 points and 13 rebounds. To round out the double-digit scorers for the Lady Eagles was Megan Brown who came out with 10 points. The redshirt senior is now at 200 points for the season and is only 80 away from joining the 1,000 point club. Shonte Hailes tied her season-high assists with seven and was a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line. Allie Kennedy had a 3-pointer performance at 100 percent, going 3-for-3 and tying her career high.

Southern Miss started out hot and stayed hot for the duration of the game. The Lady Eagles won the tip and Megan Brown had the first points of the game with a good jumper. USM never trailed and was only tied with the Lady Toppers in the very beginning of the game before Brown's jumper. The bench played their part again with 49 points, and the Lady Eagles had 16 second-chance points. Southern Miss is now the only team in Conference USA to beat WKU in Diddle Arena twice.

The fourth quarter was tense and the pressure hung in the air. Even with over four minutes left, it felt as though it was crunch time in the final seconds of the game. Fouls were flying and the Lady Topper fans were getting louder. After just about the three minute mark, neither team scored another point from the field. In the final two minutes and thirty seconds, the Lady Eagles went on a 6-1 run. It was wire-to-wire, but the Lady Eagles came out on top.