BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- Sergio Kerusch hit two clutch shots inside the final 1:43, part of his game-high 24, to lift Western Kentucky University (2-1) to a 68-67 win over Cal State Northridge (1-3) on Monday night at E.A. Diddle Arena in the 25th Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off. The Hilltoppers' win over the Matadors in the first-ever meeting between the two programs extended WKU's home court winning streak to 15 games, tied for 10th longest in school history.

Leading 48-40 with 13:21 to play, Cal State Northridge rebounded a missed AJ Slaughter jumper and had a chance to push their lead into double digits before a stunned Diddle Arena crowd. But following a Vincent Cordell miss and a Steffphon Pettigrew rebound, Anthony Sally converted a four-point play to ignite a crucial 12-4 run and turn the game around.

The senior point guard drilled a three from the top of the key and was fouled, converting at the line to slice the lead to 48-44 on the potential six-point swing. It would be four of his five points on the night, the last giving WKU the winning margin of 68-67 with 4.7 seconds to play. Sally added six assists, three rebounds, and three steals in a career-high 39 minutes. WKU is now 23-0 over the last two seasons when holding their opponents to less than 70 points.

With the deficit down to seven, Kerusch got an offensive stickback, Slaughter drained a three, and Kerusch punctuated the comeback with a baseline slam off a Sally drive and dish, knotting the game up at 52-52 with 9:53 to play. In addition to his 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting, the junior from Memphis, Tenn. had nine rebounds.

The Matadors countered with a big three from Raymond Cody, but a Pettigrew putback and a Kerusch offensive rebound and dunk gave WKU the lead 56-55 with 6:38 to play, their first since it was 28-27 with 4:57 left in the first half.

Again Cal State Northridge answered, however, scoring eight of the game's next 10 points to lead 63-58 with 2:29 remaining on a Kenny Daniels' three. But Kerusch's clutch three with 1:43 on the clock made it a one-point game, and after two free throws by Slaughter gave WKU a 65-64 edge, Kerusch accounted for another big bucket with 18.9 left to push the spread to 67-64. Daniels finished with 19 points on 2-of-3 from long range to lead Cal State Northridge.

In the first half, after leading by four early, WKU fell into a field goal drought, going nearly five minutes without a made basket under Jameson Tipping's three at 11:17 pulled the Toppers within 17-16. The freshman's shot represented the only bench points of the game for the Hilltoppers while the Matador reserves accounted for 33 points.

An 8-0 run by Cal State Northridge midway through the first half gave the Matadors their largest lead to that point, 25-17 with 7:53 until the break. WKU would battle back to retake the lead before Cordell's tip-in with 54 ticks left put Cal State Northridge up at the half 36-34.

Despite shooting just 41.0 percent from the field, including 5-of-23 from long range (21.7 percent), WKU countered a 51.0 percent shooting night from Cal State Northridge by forcing nine more turnovers (24-15), resulting in nine more points off those miscues as well as outscoring them 16-5 in second chance points.

Pettigrew just missed a double double with 10 points and nine rebounds while Slaughter and Jeremy Evans each added 13 for the Toppers.

Hill finished with 11 while Rashaun McLemore scored six of his 11 off the bench in the second half for the Matadors.

WKU will host Indiana State tomorrow at 7:00 PM to close out the Preseason NIT. Cal State Northridge will take on Coastal Carolina at 4:30 PM.

NIT NOTES:
• This marks WKU's fourth appearance in the Preseason NIT (1986, 1993, 1997, 2009)
• WKU improves to 5-4 all-time in the event
• WKU is hosting a Preseason NIT game for the first time in 23 years; after a first round win at Notre Dame in 1986, WKU hosted TCU, winning 96-90

TEAM NOTES:
• WKU extended its home court winning streak to 15 games (tied for the 10th longest streak in school history, set during the 1939-40 and 1940-41 seasons)
• WKU improves to 499-131 all-time at Diddle Arena (opened its doors in 1963)
• WKU improves to 120-13 at Diddle Arena this decade
• WKU has won its last 11-straight non-conference games at Diddle Arena and 18 of its last 19
• WKU wins its first-ever match-up against Cal State Northridge
• WKU improves to 6-2 all-time against the nine current members of the Big West Conference, snapping a two-game losing streak to the league with the first win since 1998
• WKU has now made a three-pointer in 674-straight games (dating back to the inaugural season for the shot in 1986-87), ranking sixth all-time
• Cal State Northridge is one of four NCAA Tournament teams from last year that WKU will face in their opening 12 games of the season
• WKU improves to 74-17 all-time in home openers (.813)
• WKU improves to 23-0 over the past two seasons when holding opponents to less than 70 points
• WKU has won 14-straight games when shooting between 40-49 percent from the field
• WKU has won 19-straight games when attempting more free throws than their opponent

INDIVIDUAL NOTES:
• Senior guard AJ Slaughter, the reigning Sun Belt Player of the Week, had 13 points to give him 1,040 for his career, passing Gene Rhodes (1,029) and Derek Robinson (1,038) for 37th all-time; next up is Bobby Jackson (1,060)
• Slaughter extended his career-best streak of scoring in double figures to 21
• Jeremy Evans now needs just two field goals to rise to the top of the WKU career field goal percentage list

QUOTES:
Head Coach Ken McDonald
Overall thoughts on tonight's game:
"Cal State Northridge came in and imposed their will against us with their pressure, their driving game, their offensive rebounding, and some of the things that they do well we didn't adjust to. We talked before the game about limiting penetration and making sure that we're getting the shooters. I thought in the first half we struggled with that, but we made adjustments and picked up our aggression level in the second half. Honestly, the guys just made plays at the end of the game. We had some great rebounders and some really good screeners and had some guys that were in position to drive the ball with [Anthony] Sally and [A.J.] Slaughter doing most of that. We finished the game how we wanted to, but we still have long way to go."

On Sergio Kerusch's performance down the stretch:
"There is no question without his rebounding in the second half we don't win that basketball game. He stepped up and went and got rebounds out of his area and made a huge shot at the end of the game. He's got a lot of confidence. I never worry about his confidence. When he puts his mind to it he can really get on the glass. He made some huge plays down the stretch."

On bouncing back after last week:
"Anthony Sally played much better tonight. He ran the team. He made good passes. There were a couple of times where he probably should have had more assists if guys were ready for the ball. He was up there. Against a pressure team it is hard sometimes for a point guard. From a leadership standpoint you know what he was doing tonight. The other night it wasn't like that. He was turning the ball over and getting out of control in the paint. A.J. Slaughter is in a position again where we need him to score the basketball, but we don't need him to take bad shots. Tonight, he trusted his teammate in probably the most important time. He goes and hands it off to Serge at the end of the shot clock, even though he could have kept it. He trusts his teammate and makes a great play and Serge makes the shot. That is part of leadership also. Jeremy Evans made big plays down the stretch. He took some charges and got some offensive rebounds. He is getting the ball and wanting to score at the end of the shot clock. Those are big plays and part of his progression and his maturity. You could go down the line. There were a lot of plays made, but the upperclassmen definitely stepped up when we needed them."

On pulling out a close game:
"I love close games. I think it builds your character. Now, I don't like playing poorly and I don't think we played very well tonight. I'll take some of the responsibility for that. It's about improvement at this time in the year. We have to get better each day and understand that we really don't have an easy game on our schedule. This is a good basketball team that came in here and played fearless and was athletic and played hard. I thought at the end of the game this came down to who played harder and we edged them out in a one possession game. We have to keep getting better, but we have to also understand that any given night we could lose."

Jeremy Evans, Senior Forward
On his mentality at the start of the year:
"I'm a senior, and I've only got three or four months left [to play]. I haven't played as well as I can, and the coaches keep telling me I need to get more aggressive, or I'm going to be sitting right there beside them."

Sergio Kerusch, Junior Forward
On bouncing back from last week to defend the home court:
"We took pride in defending our record at home. All the guys banded together and said 'we're not going to lose at home. No matter how we're going to do it, we're going to win.' It was just a great team effort. No one person can take credit for what we did tonight. It was just a great team effort."

On his confidence in his shot, as he has a second-straight good scoring night:
"I'm feeling good, and what makes me feel better is that my teammates trust me to make big plays. Coach always tells me that it's big to let your teammates have confidence in you. I see that as I'm maturing as a person and as a player. My teammates have confidence in me. I'll take the leadership role as long as I'm hot and as long as they'll let me take it."

Cal State Northridge head coach Bobby Braswell
Overall thoughts on tonight's game:
"Obviously it's a disappointing loss. I thought our guys played really well and gave us a chance to win it. When you go on the road you have to play good basketball, and we turned the ball over a little too much. I'm proud of my guys, and I'm proud of the effort we gave here. We defended pretty well. We did a good job defensively, and we pretty much reached every one of our defensive goals. You look at the stat sheet, and the thing that sticks out is the 24 turnovers and the 15 offensive rebounds."

On what went wrong down the stretch that allowed WKU to get back into the game:
"We've got a lot of new guys that we're trying to integrate with our veteran guys. We have to play better basketball. We did what we needed to do early in the game. You have to give [WKU] credit. We did get stops, but we gave them second shots. And that's what really hurt us."

Mark Hill, Cal State Northridge Senior Guard
On what allowed WKU to climb back and ultimately win the game:
"I feel that we were playing together as a team. We were moving the ball around, finding the open guys and finishing shots. I feel that end the end we got a little sloppy. I think that's what turned it around."

On what Cal State Northridge did right in tonight's game:
"We're playing Northridge basketball right now. The first three games were kind of sloppy. Guys were still learning the system, learning what places to be in, and right now we're playing Northridge basketball. We're going to learn from this and move on."

Kenny Daniels, Cal State Northridge Senior Guard/Forward
On what Cal State Northridge did right in tonight's game:
"We started gelling as a team and started playing better basketball. We came apart a little bit when we had the lead."