Western Kentucky got hot at the right time.

After scoring just 32 points and trailing by 10 at halftime, the Hilltoppers completely turned things around in the second half – scoring 61 points and using a dominating 35-6 run to earn a 93-84 win over North Texas in their Conference USA opener Thursday night at E.A. Diddle Arena.

WKU (8-5 overall, 1-0 C-USA) shot 28-of-51 (55 percent) from the field, outscored the Mean Green by 19 in the second half and had five players finish in double figures.

Josh Anderson led the way for the Toppers with 19 points, while Camron Justice and Jordan Rawls each finished with 18, Jared Savage scored 15 and Carson Williams tallied 14.

WKU hosts Rice (8-6, 0-1) at 4 p.m. Saturday.

WKU held a 9-8 lead at the 15:30 mark of the first half as Justice was 2-for-2 from the field and had six early points for the Hilltoppers, but North Texas assembled a quick 6-0 run in less than a minute to take an 18-13 lead at the 11:28 mark. The Mean Green extended that run to 14-2 and went up 26-15.

Taveion Hollingsworth ended a 10-0 surge by UNT with a successful and-one, and Savage’s dunk off an alley-oop pass from Hollingsworth cut the Toppers’ deficit to 30-24 with 5:49 left in the half.

Javion Hamlet’s layup gave the Mean Green a 42-30 advantage, but Hollingsworth ended the half with a pair of free throws to bring WKU within 10 at 42-32 at the break.

Hollingsworth was leading the Hilltoppers with 7 points, while Justice had scored 6.

Deng Geu was up 16 to points on a perfect 7-of-7 shooting from the field to lead North Texas. He scored 18 for the Mean Green (6-8, 0-1), while Hamlet had a team-high 19.

Williams opened the second half with a quick score inside, but UNT used a 7-0 run – and a right leg injury to Hollingsworth – to go up 49-34 at the 18:18 mark. However, WKU responded and assembled a 7-0 run of its own – highlighted by a Justice 3-pointer – to get within 49-41 at the 17:01 mark.

Another triple by Justice, followed by an and-one from Williams, pushed the Toppers’ run to 13-0 and cut their deficit to just 49-47 at the 15:39 mark. Rawls’ 3 moved the run to 16-0 and put WKU up one, but DJ Draper capped it with a 3 of his own to put North Texas back in front at 52-50.

Rawls’ second 3 of the night and a put-back layup from Anderson gave the Tops a 29-6 run and a 63-57 advantage with 11:34 remaining. Anderson then threw down one of his acrobatic slam dunks to make it 73-61 with 8:17 left.

Another deep ball by Rawls gave the Hilltoppers their largest lead of 80-66 with 5:58 left – and they were able to stay in front from there and open league play on the right foot.