Sports

The WKU women's basketball team fell 84-66 to Auburn Sunday afternoon to finish their season 22-11 and 13-7 in the Sun Belt Conference. It was a 13 win improvement over the 2011-12 season and the largest single season improvement in Conference history.

Sophomore Alexis Govan led WKU with 23 points and 8 rebounds. Sophomore Chastity Gooch had 19 points and 12 boards as she posted her 26th double-double of the season. WKU hit a season high 10 three-point field goals, just the 19th time in school history that WKU had 10 or more three's in one game.

The WKU Hilltoppers gave the #1 seed Kansas Jayhawks all they could handle Friday night, leading at the half and remaining within four points with 25 seconds left in the game.

But WKU went ice cold offensively in the second half, and Kansas held on to win 64-57.

WKU shot only 31% from the field for the game, and the Hilltoppers went 3-20 from three-point range.

Senior point guard Jamal Crook ended his WKU career with 13 points, 9 rebounds, and four assists.

WKU fans now have the 2013-14 season to think about, with forward George Fant and guard T.J. Price returning to form a nice nucleus for the two-time defending Sun Belt Conference champions.

It’s a BIG weekend for WKU basketball. The men’s team will try to make history Friday night in the NCAA tournament, and the Lady Hilltoppers are looking to win their second game in the women’s NIT.

No #16 seed has ever beaten a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Yet we keep being told by college basketball analysts that some day that very thing is going to happen. Will it be Friday, when the WKU Hilltoppers take on the top-seed Kansas Jayhawks?

Kansas is one of the deepest, most experienced teams in the country, with four senior starters. And they’re playing only 30 minutes away from their campus in Lawrence, Kansas. The Jayhawks are well-known in Kansas City, having just won the Big 12 tournament there.

The Hilltoppers? Not so much.