FINAL SCORE: Western Kentucky 79, Florida International 60

RECORDS:
Western Kentucky "Hilltoppers" — 11-17 Overall / 8-8 Sun BeltConference (5th place)
Florida International "Golden Panthers" — 16-14 Overall / 9-7 Sun Belt Conference (4th place)

PLAY-BY-PLAY HIGHLIGHTS:
First Half — the Hilltoppers jumped out in front 3-0 on a three by Nashon
McPherson and led throughout the half ..... big lead was 9 points on 2
occasions (the first, 27-19, on a layup by Nate Williams at 2:30 and the 2nd,
the 30-21 halftime score, on a three by David Boyden at 00:08 — the first
3-pointer of his college career) ..... Chris Marcus and Derek Robinson led WKU
with 6 points each (Robinson's on a pair of threes) while Lucas Barnes led FIU
with 6 ..... Marcus was the game's top rebounder with 6 while Lucas Barnes led
FIU with 5 ..... 18 turnovers in the half — 10 by FIU and 8 by WKU.

Second Half — FIU scored 5 of the first 7 points in the half (a layup and a
three by Carlos Arroyo) to close the gap to 6 (32-26) at 18:45, but that was
as close as the Golden Panthers would get ..... Western answered with 10 of
the next 12 points to push out in front by 14 (42-28) when Derek Robinson
nailed a three at 14:28 ..... from that point on, the gap varied from 7 (55-48
at 7:23 and 57-50 at 7:03) to 12 points until the final five minutes ..... the
Hilltoppers scored 12 of the final 16 points in the game in the final 4:42 of
play, hitting 7-9 at the FT line and, in the final 90 seconds, a pair of
layups by David Boyden (at 1:23) and Chris Marcus (at 0:09).

COACHES' QUOTES:
WKU Head Coach Dennis Felton — "As a coach, you always want to play the game
on your terms. When they had 21 points at halftime, I knew the game was being
played the way we wanted it to be ..... (about opening the game hitting 5 of
first 6 shots) It certainly helps when you're making shots and tonight we were
able to feed off of that the whole game. I thought we controlled the momentum
of the game from beginning to end."

FIU Head Coach Shakey Rodriguez — "They just came out and hit some shots.
They defended us extremely well. And, we had no answer for the big fella. We
just didn't have enough offensive weapons to offset their defense. But, all
the praise goes to them. We made several runs to get close, but then they
would throw a dagger by hitting a three. When a team comes to play like they
did, it's tough."

NEXT GAME — The Hilltoppers advance to tomorrow night's lower bracket
semifinals to face number one seeded South Alabama (Sun Belt co-champ — 19-9
overall), a 74-58 winner over number nine seed Arkansas-Little Rock Saturday
afternoon (USA was off today); game time is set for 9 p.m. (CST) and the game
will be televised in the South by College Sports Southeast (will also be live
on WKYU-TV, PBS Channel 24 in Bowling Green — channel 11 on Insight Cable
System in BG) ..... Florida International concludes it's season with tonight's
game.

NOTES — WKU and FIU split during the regular season — the Hilltoppers
defeated FIU 73-65 in Bowling Green back on Feb. 12 after the Golden Panthers
bettered WKU 93-63 in the Toppers' Sun Belt opener in Miami on Jan. 8 .....
Chris Marcus posted his 10th double-double of the season (he led the Sun Belt
in double-doubles this season) and had his 20th double figure game scoring and
his 13th on the boards (both team highs) ..... 5 blocks just one shy of his
career high — and, those five pushed his season total to 73, a new WKU school
record (old record by 69 by Clarence Martin in the 1986-87 season) ..... 10
three-pointers by WKU just one shy of season-high 11 Western had in 92-70 home
win over Murray State ..... 19-point margin of victory is 3rd highest for WKU
this season (77-51 home win over New Orleans on Feb. 21 and that triumph over
Murray State on Dec. 7) ..... only the second time this season WKU has put 5
men in double figures ..... Tremain Rowles' 11 points (all in less than 3
minutes — from 8:00 mark to 5:13 mark — in the 2nd half) equalls his
season-high (5th time this year with 11).