Having won three consecutive games, including a sweep of a two-game road swing, the WKU Lady Toppers return home to face No. 4/3 Louisville at E.A. Diddle Arena on Wednesday at 7 p.m.. The game will mark the first time a top five team has come into E.A. Diddle Arena since WKU defeated fourth-ranked Louisiana Tech on Jan. 25, 1998, 88-86. WKU is 6-8 all-time in E.A. Diddle Arena against teams ranked in the AP top five at the time of the contest.
The game will be televised by the Hilltopper Sports Satellite Network and will be available through ESPN3 nationally and WKU PBS in the Bowling Green area.
“To be able to have someone of Louisville’s caliber come on our home floor and be able to have the opportunity for our fans and just for us in general as a team, it’s going to be a big challenge but we’re super excited about it,” said head coach Michelle Clark-Heard. “They’re averaging 90 points a game. They have different people that can score in different varieties of ways. They have over four or five of their players in double figures. I think the biggest thing what we’re going to have to do is focus on us as a team. We’re going to have to take care of the basketball. They’re going to do a lot of different things, that’s just how Jeff (Walz) coaches. As a team, we’re going to have to be poised enough and confident enough to take care of the basketball. We’re going to have to make shots at the end of the day and we’re going to have to rebound. So, a lot of challenges of course, but that’s why (they are) number four in the country.”
The game will be both a homecoming and reunion for both coaching staffs. Louisville head coach Jeff Walz is a former assistant coach at WKU while WKU head coach Michelle Clark-Heard spent five seasons as an assistant to Walz at Louisville before returning to the Hill. In addition, WKU assistant coach Margaret Richards was a graduate assistant to Walz at Louisville while WKU assistant coach Candyce Bingham played for Walz on the 2009 national finalist team and coached under Walz as a graduate assistant on the 2013 national finalist team. Finally, WKU assistant Greg Collins previously served as an assistant coach at Louisville. The contest also marks the meeting of two Paul Sanderford protégés in Walz and Clark-Heard. The duo served as assistant coaches together under the legendary WKU coach at Nebraska.
The game has been labeled as a “White Out,” with the first 1,000 fans receiving a free shirt commemorating the event.
One of the starters for the Lady Cardinals, who were national runner a year ago, is Antonita Slaughter, brother of former WKU star A.J. Slaughter. Another is Sara Hammond, who played in the state high school tournament at WKU. The Lady Toppers are led by All-America candidate Shoni Schimmel, and her sister Jude is a key player. Other starters are point guard Bria Smith and post player Asia Taylor, who is new to the team, which won the Preseason NIT championship earlier this month.
The Lady Toppers have a pair of All-American candidates in Chastity Gooch of Franklin and Alexis Govan.