BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — WKU Hilltopper Basketball got all it could handle from the hot shooting of Gardner-Webb on Thursday night, but rode a career night from Charles Bassey, its own clutch shooting and crisp ball-handling to an 86-84 victory at E.A. Diddle Arena.
Gardner-Webb made 12 of 19 3-pointers in its season debut, but that was overshadowed by a career-high 29 points and 14 rebounds from the junior center Bassey.
“I just go into every game and play hard,” Bassey said. “It doesn’t matter how many points I score, how many rebounds I get, how many blocked shots I get, I just go in there and play hard. Playing hard, you don’t know, you’re just going to get points like that. I just go in every game, it’s just my mindset, playing hard every possession and every time I’m on the floor.”
Joining Bassey in double figures were senior guard Josh Anderson and redshirt junior guard Luke Frampton. Anderson scored 16 points, including 12 in the second half, while Frampton buried all five of his 3-point attempts for his 15 points.
WKU (4-2) handed out 20 assists and committed just four turnovers.
Gardner-Webb (0-1) made 8 of 12 3s in the first half and led 43-40 at the break.
The Hilltoppers finally surged back ahead with a 20-5 run, during which Anderson had 11 points. His steal and dunk made it 65-53 with 11:43 to play.
Gardner-Webb erased WKU’s lead in less than two minutes and pulled back in front on a 3 by Lance Terry with 7:02 to go that made it 72-69.
Frampton knocked down a tying 3 coming out of the media timeout, and sophomore guard Jordan Rawls followed with another 3-pointer.
“I was taking the shots I was given,” Frampton said. “I’m happy it came out how it did. I’ve been shooting the ball pretty poorly the last couple games, I’m definitely happy with the performance tonight, especially getting a win. That’s all that really matters to me. Like CB, doesn’t matter how many points, rebounds, whatever, as long as we get a win, that’s all that matters.”
WKU never trailed again, but it wasn’t easy. After Bassey made one free throw to make it 86-84, Gardner-Webb’s Jaheam Cornwall missed the winning 3 in the final seconds.
Jacob Falko paced the Runnin’ Bulldogs with 19 points.
“We now know why they were available to schedule a game, why nobody else had scheduled them yet,” WKU head coach Rick Stansbury said. “It’s very obvious, they’re a very good team. There were a couple guys for them that we didn’t know anything about, hadn’t seen them. I think it was 0 and 3, Terry and Falko. They had 34 points between them and those two guys were the difference in the game… Probably the key stat was that we had 20 assists, four turnovers. That helped survive some of the things we didn’t do as well. … That’s one of the games you’ll look back on this time of year and look back on it late in the year, and say that’s a good quality win, without us being at our best.”
The Hilltoppers continue their three-game homestand Sunday against Rhode Island at 11 a.m. CT. The game will air on CBS Sports Network.
