Tops clip Falcons 65-62 in exhibition

Published 11:12 am Wednesday, October 21, 2026

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Western Kentucky men’s basketball coach Hank Plona calls out instructions from the sideline during Tuesday’s 65-62 preseason win against Bowling Green at E.A. Diddle Arena.
(STEVE ROBERTS/WKU Athletics)

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Western Kentucky sophomore guard Armelo Boone looks for a lane during Tuesday’s 65-62 preseason win against Bowling Green at E.A. Diddle Arena.
(STEVE ROBERTS/WKU Athletics)

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Western Kentucky redshirt junior guard Teagan Moore (30) reacts after scoring a basketball and drawing a foul against Bowling Green during the Hilltoppers’ 65-62 exhibition win Tuesday at E.A. Diddle Arena.
(STEVE ROBERTS/WKU Athletics)

Western Kentucky never really got going on offense against Bowling Green’s zone defense look Tuesday night, but the Hilltoppers came up with the clutch baskets down the stretch to earn a 65-62 exhibition win at E.A. Diddle Arena.

Billed as the “Battle of Bowling Green,” the game’s first half more resembled a sporadic skirmish with neither team lighting up the scoreboard as the Tops built a 29-24 halftime lead.

WKU pushed that lead out to 13 points before the Falcons made a second-half charge to close within a point. It was still just a two-point lead for the Tops with two minutes to play when Teagan Moore and LJ Hackman came up with tough baskets through contact in the lane.

Moore’s bucket – he missed the resulting free throw on the foul – pushed the Hilltoppers’ lead to 59-55. A Tristan Beckford tip-in got Bowling Green back within two, then Hackman crashed through the paint for a layup and hit his free throw for a three-point play to stretch the advantage to 62-57 with 1:18 to go.

“I mean, that’s winning time,” said Moore, the Conference USA Preseason Player of the Year who finished with a game-high 22 points along with six rebounds. “That’s the time when you want to be on the court and that’s the time you want to make a play and be ultra-aggressive. I think that is mine and LJ’s biggest strengths – we’re big, strong guards and if we see … I’m not going to say weak, but smaller guards on us that’s all we’re thinking is attack, attack, attack.”

Moore’s lob on a break to teammate Moussa Konare for a dunk had the Tops up 64-59 with 58 seconds to go, but Bowling Green answered with a 3-pointer by Josiah Shackelford to make it a one-possession game – Shackelford was fouled on the make, but couldn’t convert the free throw for a four-point play.

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The Falcons then came up with a steal but missed on the other end, with Hackman drawing a foul for a pair of free throws – he missed the first and hit the second to stretch the lead to 65-62 with six seconds left.

Bowling Green still had a chance to tie, but the Tops’ defense effectively forced a desperation 3 by Shackelford that didn’t fall.

“I thought we did good, but there’s a lot of stuff we can still get better at,” said WKU junior point guard Sharron Young, one of eight new Hilltoppers playing for the first time in front of a home crowd at Diddle. “The season’s long. Our coaches are great coaches, so they’re going to find out what we need to get better at, and we’re just going to go from there and just keep being a great team and find each other when we’re open and just playing together.”

Young, a transfer from Akron, added 11 points including a pair of 3-pointers, and Hackman tallied 10 points and eight rebounds.

WKU shot 39.3% from the field and hit just 3-of-13 (23.1%) from 3-point range. The modest point total was a departure from the Tops’ first effort in a high-scoring matchup against Arkansas State in a closed scrimmage.

“That 40 minutes is probably why you do these things,” WKU coach Hank Plona said. “Obviously not a real basketball game, but we try to use those situations to treat it as such and I would think at the end of the game it helps next time we’re in a tough situation like that we know we’ve been in one and we’ve executed well enough to get the win, which is what I’d say we did tonight.”

Plona debuted a new look on the sideline, wearing a red sweater vest in honor of WKU Athletics Hall of Famer Jim Richards, a former men’s basketball head coach and athletic director at Western Kentucky who died at age 90 earlier this month.

“I’m not sure if my wardrobe matches exactly what he would wear on the sideline, but in the last 3 1/2 years where he became a very close friend and confidant when I picture coach I picture him with either a red jacket or a red sweater vest on, so I ran it by his grandson Casey today and I could tell it meant something to him and he thought to the family. Just a way to pay tribute to coach a little bit and with the game not being streamed you had to pay $5 for that, so that’s all you’re going to get.”

WKU will have one more exhibition on Sunday against Indiana at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana. Game time is 3 p.m.

The Hilltoppers open the regular season Nov. 2 at home against Morehead State.

About Jeff Nations

Sports Editor, Bowling Green Daily News

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