FINAL SCORE: Denver 55, Western Kentucky 52

RECORDS:
Western Kentucky "Hilltoppers" — 10-17 Overall / 8-8 Sun Belt Conference
Denver "Pioneers" — 6-21 Overall / 3-13 Sun Belt Conference

PLAY-BY-PLAY HIGHLIGHTS:
First Half — WKU drew first blood, but couldn't build any kind of lead early
..... a FG by Tremain Rowles at 14:37 put the Hilltoppers up 8-7 and then, at
14:02, Todor Pandov added a pair of FTs to stake WKU to a 10-7 lead ..... but,
then the weel went dry for the Toppers, who went scoreless for 4:45 (and
without a FG for 5:20) ..... meanwhile, the Pioneers were taking advantage; a
three by B.J. Pratt tied it at 10-10 at 12:20 and Wahhab Carter put DU up
12-10 with a FG at 11:36 and Denver led the remainder of the half ..... DU was
on top 15-10 when a three by Rowles broke the scoring drought for the
Hilltoppers at 9:17 ..... WKU stayed right with the Pioneers but could not
pull even the remainder of the half ..... Ty Church's driving layup at the
buzzer staked DU to a 30-26 advantage at the half ..... WKU's David Boyden led
all scorers at the hald with 10 and Arthur Ireland had 9 for DU ..... DU's
Kevin Overton was the game's top rebounder (6) and Boyden had 5 for WKU.

Second Half — it stayed close, but WKU just could not catch up ..... it was
a 39-37 game with just under 12 minutes to play and then DU scored 7 of the
next 9 points to take it's biggest lead of the night (46-39) when Ty Church
scored at 8:48 ..... but WKU then scored 10 of the next 13 points in the game
(6 on a pair of threes by Tremain Rowles) to tie it up 49-49 on Rowles 2nd
trey at 5:17 ..... both teams then went scoreless for the next 3:29 before
DU's Wahhab Carter scored inside at 1:48 (DU 51-49); Church then added a pair
of FTs at 0:30 (DU 53-49) before WKU's Todor Pandov drove into the lane,
scored and drew a foul, then added a FT (at 0:16) to pull WKU within one
(53-52) ..... but, WKU was forced to foul and Church added two more FTs at
0:14; WKU could not ball into bucket and Pioneers held on for the win.

COACHES' QUOTES:
WKU Head Coach Dennis Felton — "I was not totally surprised with the
outcome. It was a sixth game in 12 days while Denver hadn't played in a week
and it showed. We just didn't have it tonight ..... I'm disappointed. We
knew it was going to be a battle ..... Still, we hung in there with them and
had our chance to win the game in the final minute."

NEXT GAME — The Hilltoppers (#5 seed) will face Florida International (#2)
seed in final game of Sun Belt Conference quarterfinals Sunday (March 5) at 7
p.m. (CST) at ALLTEL Arena in Little Rock, Ark. ..... Denver (#8 seed) faces
New Orleans (#7 seed) in first round game Saturday (March 4) at 1 pm.

NOTES — loss snaps 3-game WKU winning streak ...... Denver's first year in
Sun Belt and WKU's first trip to Denver (WKU won 83-71 back on Jan. 24 in
Bowling Green) ..... freshman David Boyden's 14 points equalled his
career-high and Tremain Rowles 11 equalled his season-high ..... Lee Lampley
had off-night shooting (3-12), but equalled his career-high with 4 assists
..... 54 of 55 Denver points scored by 4 men.