WKU beats Campbellsville 78-51 to improve to 3-0 at home

What This Story Is About

• WKU improved to 3-0 at home with a 78-51 win over Campbellsville on Wednesday night.

Why It Matters

• WKU improves to 3-1 on the season, 3-0 at E.A. Diddle Arena and 10-0 all-time against Campbellsville.

What Happens Next

• The Hilltoppers travel to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to face Tulsa on Monday, Nov. 16. Tipoff inside the Donald W. Reynolds Center is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT, with the game airing nationally on ESPNU.

For Context

• Emondrek Erkins-Ford led WKU with a season-high 14 points.

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - WKU improved to 3-0 at home with a 78-51 win over Campbellsville on Wednesday night inside E.A. Diddle Arena. The Hilltoppers are 3-1 on the season.

Emondrek Erkins-Ford led WKU with a season-high 14 points. Teagan Moore added 12 points, and Armelo Boone finished with 10.

The Hilltoppers had 17 steals and scored 32 points off 24 Campbellsville turnovers. WKU held a 48-10 advantage in the paint.

First half

WKU opened the scoring on a Moore fast-break layup. An Erkins-Ford layup gave the Hilltoppers a 4-1 lead. Campbellsville answered with back-to-back 3-pointers to take a 7-4 lead.

Two LJ Hackman free throws, an Erkins-Ford 3-pointer and a Sharron Young jumper fueled a 7-0 run that gave WKU an 11-7 lead with 13:22 remaining in the half.

Campbellsville pulled within one point before two Gabe Weis free throws and a Moussa Konare fast-break dunk pushed WKU’s lead to 15-10. After a Campbellsville dunk, a Young 3-pointer started another 7-0 run that included a Weis layup and two Moore free throws. The run gave the Hilltoppers their first double-digit lead, 22-12, with 6:38 to play in the half.

Hackman made a 3-pointer to restore the 10-point lead, 25-15, with 5:44 remaining. Campbellsville scored five straight points before a Moore layup pushed the margin back to seven. Campbellsville answered with a jumper to cut the deficit to 27-22 with 3:28 left.

WKU closed the half on an 8-0 run. Boone and Joseph Adebayo scored on layups, and Boone added a free throw. Erkins-Ford capped the run with his second 3-pointer with 51 seconds remaining, and WKU led 35-22 at halftime.

Second half

WKU answered Campbellsville’s opening basket of the second half with a 6-0 run. The run included a Weis dunk and two-pointers from Erkins-Ford and Young, and it pushed the lead to 41-24 with 16:43 remaining. The teams traded scores over the next stretch, and a Moore layup gave WKU a 45-27 lead with 14:07 to play.

With WKU leading 47-32, a Boone free throw started an 11-0 run. Boone added a fast-break dunk, Hackman made four free throws and Konare scored consecutive baskets to extend the lead to 58-32 with 9:16 remaining.

A Boone layup restored the 26-point lead before Campbellsville scored five straight points to trim the deficit to 60-39. Moore answered with consecutive layups, and an Erkins-Ford layup pushed the lead to 66-39 with 5:30 to play. Another Erkins-Ford layup and an Adebayo dunk extended the margin to 28 points with 3:03 remaining.

After a Campbellsville 3-pointer, WKU went on an 8-0 run on two 3-pointers and a layup to take its largest lead, 78-45, with 43 seconds remaining. Campbellsville made two late 3-pointers to bring the final score to 78-51.

“Obviously, we have a very difficult stretch in front of us, and we need to improve, get better and get right back to work here before Monday at Tulsa,” head coach Hank Plona said. “So, I think we’re looking forward to doing that. We just talked about it as a group a little bit. If you’re not looking forward to doing that at this point, it’s probably going to be hard to get on the floor.”

“We’re going to try to kind of figure out, from now until Monday night at 6:00 or whenever the tipoff is, what we’ve got to do to continue to improve, but also kind of get back to playing our best basketball,” Plona said. “We’ll work hard the next five days to do that.”

Guard Sharron Young spoke about WKU’s defensive effort.

“I think we were just all right, from what Coach was saying,” Young said. “I think we believe that, too. We’ve got room for improvement, and we’re going to learn from this game and get better from it.”

Forward Emondrek Erkins-Ford spoke about his offensive performance.

“They’re encouraging me in practice, and pregame they’re telling me to score the ball and be aggressive, then look for the other options,” Erkins-Ford said. “I’m just trying to be more aggressive and get to my go-to stuff. They’re telling me to do it, so I believe in them. I’ve got to believe in myself, too, and just keep doing it.”