Hot Springs, Ark. — A 30-4 run that covered an 11:40 span over the
end of the first half and start of the second provided the Western
Kentucky University women’s basketball team with the cushion it needed to pick up a 72-67 win over South Alabama Sunday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the 2010 Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

With the win, the Lady Toppers (21-9) advance to the semifinals where
they will meet Middle Tennessee at 2:30 p.m. (CST) on Monday. That
game will be televised on the Sun Belt Network, and can be seen locally
in Bowling Green on WKYU-PBS. South Alabama ended its season 15-16.

“I’m really proud of our effort and our composure today. We built a
nice lead, but got our backs pushed against the wall there late in the
game,” said Lady Topper head coach Mary Taylor Cowles. “We‘re very
excited to be sticking around in Hot Springs, and looking forward to
another great game tomorrow afternoon.”

The Lady Toppers had their struggles out of the gate, missing their
first six shots and going the first 5:18 without a basket. Fortunately, South Alabama scored just six points over that span to keep WKU close. The Jaguars were able to jump out to a 15-4 lead after a Shakira Nettles layup at the 10:55 mark.

Keisha Mosley took over for the Lady Toppers offensively at that point,
scoring WKU’s next six points as part of a 10-2 run that made it a 17-
14 game after an Arnika Brown layup at the 6:47 mark. USA continued to hold on to the advantage, and led 23-18 after a Morriah Smith jumper
with five minutes on the clock. That would prove to be South
Alabama’s last field goal of the half, however.

The Lady Toppers battled all the way back to tie the game at 24-24 on a
Dominique Duck layup at the 2:10 mark, and took their first lead of the
game when a Hope Brown three made it a 27-24 game with a minute to go.

After another Arnika Brown basket put WKU up five with 31 ticks left,
Kenzie Rich drew a charge to give the Lady Toppers the ball back with
4.3 seconds remaining. Amy McNear took the inbounds pass the into the front court, and pulled up a the top of the key to knock down a three
as time expired, sending WKU into the locker room with a 32-24 lead.

After struggling with their shot early, the Lady Toppers ended the half
shooting 53.6 percent, while holding South Alabama to just 33.3 percent
shooting.

The 14-1 run that closed out the first half continued after halftime as
the Lady Toppers scored the first eight points of the second half to
pull out to a 40-24 lead on a Duck jumper with 17:16 remaining. That
advantage grew as high as 21 points on two occasions, the last coming
when a jumper from McNear made it a 50-29 score with just over 12
minutes remaining.

The offense went cold for the Lady Toppers over the next four minutes,
however, as they were limited to just two points and the Jaguars cut
their deficit down to 13 points with 8:42 remaining. After Kenzie Rich
stretched the WKU lead back out to 17 points (62-45) with 5:07 left,
USA scored the next seven points to made it a 62-52 contest with 3:35
to go.

The Jags took advantage of their free three shooting — connecting on 16 of 22 for the game — and got threes from Christian Shelter and Nettles to get within four points with 20 seconds left. WKU made a living at the line down the stretch, however, hitting six of 10 in the final 32 seconds to secure the victory.

Arnika Brown paced four Lady Toppers in double figures with 17 points, and in the process became the 32nd player in Lady Topper history to score 1,000 career points. She also ripped down a game-high 10 rebounds for her 15th double-double of the season. That effort also helped WKU to a 39-25 advantage on the glass.

McNear and Rich each finished with 13 points, while Duck tossed in 12.
Mosley and Hope Brown each finished with eight points off the bench.
Nettles tossed in a game-high 20 points to lead USA.