BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Sophomore Sergio Kerusch scored a career-high 26 points and posted his team-leading seventh double double of the season as Western Kentucky University (19-8, 13-3 SBC) avenged its January 8 loss to FIU (11-18, 6-10 SBC) by downing the Panthers 79-66. The win is the 1,600th in the illustrious 90-year history of Hilltopper Basketball, but more importantly it kept WKU in first-place in the Sun Belt Conference East Division standings and a leg up on UALR and Troy in the race for the SBC Tournament's top seed with two games to play.

WKU remains the only Sun Belt team unblemished at home, winning their 13th-straight at Diddle Arena in front of a season-best crowd of 7,117 fans. Since 2000, the Toppers are 64-5 at home versus Sun Belt opponents.

The Hilltoppers jumped out to a 9-1 advantage on Sergio Kerusch's jumper with 16:09 left in the first half as FIU misfired on their first eight shots from the field. Freddy Asprilla, however, got the Panthers going as FIU proceeded to hit five of their next seven to pull within 16-13 with just over 10 minutes left in the half. Asprilla poured in a team-high 21 points and 15 rebounds off the bench.

Leading by six with 5:21 on the clock, Steffphon Pettigrew started what would be the decisive run of the game as WKU closed the half on a 12-0 spurt to lead by 18 at the break 36-18 on Kerusch's tip-in at the buzzer. Scoring 15 in the first half, the 26 points by Kerusch was the third highest point total by a Topper this year. Pettigrew added 17 points and eight rebounds.

The second half opened the way the first ended as the Hilltoppers scored the first three buckets, the last one in highlight-reel fashion as AJ Slaughter left an pass above the rim for a trailing Jeremy Evans to dunk, punctuating the 18-0 run, giving the Toppers their largest spread of the game 42-18.

Slaughter extended his career-best double-digit scoring streak to 11 games, finishing with 11 points on 5-of-5 at the line and dishing out a team-high six assists.

FIU made a late run, trimming an 18-point deficit to 70-61 with 1:23 left on a three-pointer by Alex Galindo, but WKU converted 9-of-10 at the stripe in the final 81 seconds to seal the 13-point win. Galindo scored 13 while Tremayne Russell chipped in 12 for FIU who shot 38.1 percent for the game and were just 5-of-22 from long range.

WKU will try and close out the program's eighth undefeated home season in 46 years of play at Diddle Arena when the Hilltoppers host Florida Atlantic on Thursday, February 26 at 7:00 PM. This will be "Senior Night" for Orlando Mendez-Valdez, Mike Walker, Japeth Aguilar, and Matt Maresca.