A crowd of 7,523 at E.A. Diddle Arena, the largest non-conference home crowd for WKU since the arena renovations in 2002-03, was treated to a top-notch college basketball game Monday night, as Ole Miss earned a 79-74 win over WKU in a game that featured six ties and 13 lead changes.
On the crowd:
“The crowd was unbelievable. That’s what WKU basketball is about. If we can continue to get crowds like that, it’ll make this a very this a very difficult place to play in the future, and I think it will help us put even better players in the uniform,” said Topper coach Ray Harper.
The loss moves WKU's record to 8-5 entering Sun Belt Conference play later this week. Ole Miss improves to 9-3. The crowd was the third-largest overall since the arena renovations 12 seasons ago. WKU is now 12-1 in the non-conference portion of the last two seasons.
T.J. Price led WKU with 26 points, thanks in part to a career high-tying six three-pointers, and George Fant tied a career best with 14 rebounds to go along with 13 points. WKU won the rebounding battle 41-34, and the Hilltoppers hit a season-high 12 three-point field goals in the game. Jarvis Summers led Ole Miss with 24 points, and Marshall Henderson had 23 with seven three-pointers.
WKU came out blazing in the first half, making seven of its first eight three-point field goal attempts and taking a 29-15 lead over the Rebels at one point. But Ole Miss rattled off 11-straight after that to come within three points at 29-26, before Caden Dickerson ended the run with a jump shot. The Rebels then scored six more in a row to make it a 17-2 run and take its first lead of the game at 32-31 on a Henderson three-pointer.
Price led the Hilltoppers with 11 first-half points, and Trency Jackson added six. Henderson led all scorers with 12 points. The Rebels shot 51.9 percent as a team in the opening 20 minutes (14-for-27), and WKU fired at a 40.0 percent clip (12-for-30).
WKU led 60-57 in the second half before Ole Miss scored six in a row to lead 63-60, and WKU would only tie it in the final 5:09. The Hilltoppers got within two with 2:04 to go, but the Rebels made seven of their last eight free throw attempts to seal the win.
The second half alone had 12 lead changes. WKU finished the game shooting 40.0 percent (22-for-55) and 42.9 percent from distance (12-for-28). Ole Miss ended the game at 45.0 percent overall (27-for-60) and hit 9 of 16 three-point tries (.563).
“I thought they made the plays. Marshall (Henderson) made a couple big shots, which he does. (Jarvis) Summers was very, very good for them tonight. He got us into the paint area and was physical as a point guard and he made plays.” “I thought they made the plays. Marshall (Henderson) made a couple big shots, which he does. (Jarvis) Summers was very, very good for them tonight. He got us into the paint area and was physical as a point guard and he made plays,” said Coach Ray Harper.
“I thought at times, we made Henderson uncomfortable. Even though we talk to kids about it and show them on tape, it catches them by surprise, and I thought it caught us by surprise a couple times when he shot it from the red towel, but that’s who he is. Give our guys credit. They chased him; they made him take some tough ones. That is who he is, he makes some tough ones, he takes some tough ones.”
On Henderson’s two late threes that sealed the Rebels’ win, Fant said: “They were huge. Like everyone says about him, he’s going to take a lot of crazy shots, and he’s going to hit a lot of
them. It was a close game right there at the end, one possession game, and he hit two big shots back-to-back. That’s probably the difference in the game.”
Price said, “I loved the crowd. I want to thank the crowd, too. They broke a record, that’s great. I hope they keep coming. We’re going to keep playing hard and giving our all just for them. They were part of the reason we played well tonight. We fed off the crowd. We want to thank the crowd, not just for me but for the whole team.”
UP NEXT
WKU begins its 32nd and final season as a member of the Sun Belt Conference on Thursday evening at
5:05 at South Alabama. From there, the Hilltoppers travel to Troy to face the Trojans at noon on Saturday, before returning home on Thursday, Jan. 9 to face Georgia State.