Lady Toppers cruise to exhibition win over Young Harris
Western Kentucky women’s basketball coach Greg Collins gathers with members of his team during Saturday’s 84-66 exhibition win against Young Harris College at E.A. Diddle Arena.
(ELLA OAKLEY/WKU Athletics)
The Western Kentucky women’s basketball team had a successful dress rehearsal with an 84-66 win over Young Harris College in Saturday’s exhibition game at E.A. Diddle Arena.
WKU had a mix of returnees and some new faces contribute in a game that the Lady Toppers seized control of early and were able to cruise from there.
While there were some positives and negatives, head coach Greg Collins said he was pleased with the overall effort.
“The execution is not always sharp, it’s not always good but the effort is good,” Collins said. “We’ve got players that haven’t been playing under lights and in front of fans. You can tell a difference between Trinity Rowe’s presence and Josie Gilvin’s presence and then some of the young ladies that haven’t been on the court recently. We just have to keep working at that. Probably the biggest positive I think is that we took decent care of the ball after the first half and got shots. Offensively the only negative is we didn’t finish a lot of opportunities. Defensively, we’ve got to rebound better.”
Gilvin, back with WKU after transferring to Kentucky last season, set the tone with a layup nine seconds in and continued to impress from there. The fifth-year senior finished with a team-high 18 points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals in 34 minutes in Saturday’s victory.
“It felt amazing to be back in the arena and with all my teammates,” Gilvin said. “It felt really good.”
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Young Harris held the lead for about 90 seconds in the first quarter – the largest a 10-7 advantage less than four minutes in – before WKU started to seize control. Freshman Jamila Ray provided a spark off the bench, with her drive to the bucket fueling a 13-2 run to close the first that pushed WKU in front 22-14.
“She looks like a really good player at times and at times she looks like a freshman,” Collins said. “Josie Gilvin looked like that when she was a freshman. If you remember Josie was similar to that. JD is going to be a tremendous player.”
WKU continued to pull away in the second quarter, with Gilvin’s steal and layup in the final seconds pushing the advantage to 42-25 by halftime. The margin grew to 66-38 after seven straight from Illinois transfer Hayven Smith – part of a rotation of eight players that saw significant minutes through the first three quarters.
“The players that didn’t play significant minutes that transferred, we need them to get their feet solid on the ground,” Collins said. “They need to know what to do, when to do it and feel confident that they can do it. Unless you prove that you can add … we have to make sure we have that core group solid.”
Young Harris was able to make a dent into the deficit in the fourth, with Collins going deeper down the bench, but the lead never dipped below 15.
Gilvin led the way for an offense that shot 49.2% from the field. Smith added 14 points on 4-for-6 shooting, while Ray had 13 points and four steals in 25 minutes.
“It was a time to get my feet wet, playing at the college level,” Ray said. “It’s definitely a tougher place to play in, just getting ready for the college experience. To go out there and do and focus on what I can do and include my teammates, that was my main focus.”
Louisiana-Monroe transfer Kamille Brown and Tatum Boettjer added nine points each, with Torri James scoring eight with a team-high six rebounds. Rowe had a team-high five assists.
Young Harris outrebounded WKU 33-27, but committed 26 turnovers with the Lady Toppers holding a 39-5 advantage in points off turnovers.
“I still wasn’t pleased with our defense,” Collins said. “They shouldn’t have had 66 points. We’ve got to get better at that, so it is encouraging when you are generating some turnovers and everything is not difficult. We have to continue to do that. I think this team will be effective defensively just like any other of our really good teams have been.”
WKU will open the regular season hosting Chattanooga at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
About Micheal Compton
I am a sports reporter and movie critic for the Bowling Green Daily News.
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