BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (2/9/05) The showdown between the two top teams in the Sun Belt Conference turned into a rout as Western Kentucky (16-6, 9-0) knocked off North Texas 91-40 for their 12th straight win at E.A. Diddle Arena. The 51-point loss is the largest defeat handed to North Texas (11-11, 6-4) since 1985.
“They came out and were just really tough to stop tonight,” said North Texas head coach Tina Slinker. “Western Kentucky reminded me of Texas because they are so tough to stop and they have such a talented trio of players”.
The trio of Leslie Logsdon, Crystal Kelly, and Tiffany Porter-Talbert combined to score 58 of the 91 points scored by Western Kentucky.
Logsdon and Kelly finished the night with double-doubles as Logsdon scored a game-high 21 points. Kelly ended with 17 points, all scored in the second half, and 14 rebounds.
The Lady Toppers led wire-to-wire as they jumped out to an early 11-3 lead in the first seven minutes of the first half. Western Kentucky extended its lead to 41-15 at the break. North Texas opened the second half with a 12-0 run to trim the Lady Topper led to 45-25 with 16:06 remaining.
North Texas did not get any closer to the Lady Toppers from that point as Western Kentucky responded with run of 13-6 to move ahead 58-31 with 10:30 left in the game.
The Lady Toppers closed the game out on a 27-2 run and give the Mean Green its largest defeat since losing to UL-Monroe 94-33 on February 26, 1985.
”This was really the first game this season where I feel like that we didn’t come out and compete for an entire 40 minutes,” Slinker said.
North Texas was led by Erika Bobo with 12 points but shot the ball only 24 percent from the floor. Western Kentucky shot 48 percent from the floor and out-rebounded the Mean Green 54-39.
Sophomore forward Kelsie Edwards saw her first action since January 2. as she returned from a knee injury that forced her to miss nine games.
North Texas returns home on Saturday night to face Middle Tennessee at 5 p.m.
