Tops wary of Herd’s 3-point threat
Published 9:00 am Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Western Kentucky men’s basketball coach Hank Plona talks to his team during the Hilltoppers’ 80-79 win against Evansville on Saturday at E.A. Diddle Arena.
Western Kentucky men’s basketball coach Hank Plona is making sure his team keeps a pretty simple metric in mind heading into Wednesday’s road matchup against Marshall.
“When they’ve made 10 or more 3s, they’ve won every game,” Plona said of the Thundering Herd’s 3-point shooting. ‘When they’ve made nine or less 3s, they’ve lost every game. So if you want my two cents on Marshall, everything else matters less than that. When they’ve made 10 or more 3s, they’ve won. When they’ve made nine or less 3s, they’ve lost. That’s the one that stands out on something that we can control. And obviously we didn’t do a great job guarding the 3-point line versus Evansville and we’ve had our ups and downs with that.
“So as far as what we need to focus on to beat Marshall – I think man, we’re going to score 75, 80 points no matter who we play. But I just think that you focus on trying to take away their strengths.”
WKU (6-2) has won two straight, the latest an 80-79 win against Evansville on Saturday at E.A. Diddle Arena. The Hilltoppers led comfortably with a double-digit advantage before the Purples Aces rallied to get close with eight made 3-pointers in the final 20 minutes.
“We shouldn’t get a 56-38 lead and then allow just as many points in the last 11 minutes of the game as we did in the first 29,” Plona said. “To me, that’s a sign of a team that’s going to have massive swings and massive ups and downs. It’s our job to try to identify the issue … make sure to inform the players of what we see as the issue and then try to work day to day to improve that issue.”
Plona said that struggle to maintain the lead has been a recurring theme in the early part of the season for his team, with the Hilltoppers tending to play better in close games. Losing starting point guard Terrion Murdix to a knee injury during the team’s trip to the Bahamas to play in the Battle 4 Atlantis hasn’t helped – Murdix, who has an extensive history of knee injuries, is expected to return perhaps as soon as the start of January.
“We just need to keep getting better,” Plona said. “Things have changed a little bit without Terrion Murdix out there. I’d say right now when we’re doing pretty good, we’re probably doing really good. When we’re struggling, we’re really struggling. I think just we have an inconsistency with how we’re playing on both ends of the floor and I think his absence is a part of that. When everybody’s locked in and stepping up and communicating and playing every play and working together and staying in the moment, I think we’re pretty good. But we can’t take the foot off the gas at all. Anytime that we kind of get loose or we defer or we look to somebody else, we have some struggles.”
The Tops have won eight straight in the series against Marshall (5-4), which previously played in Conference USA before moving on to the Sun Belt Conference in 2022. That includes a 90-82 victory last season at Diddle during Plona’s first season leading the program. Neither team much resembles last year’s version – for the Tops, only three current players (guard Jack Edelen and forwards Blaise Keita and Leeroy Odiahi) saw action in last year’s win against the Herd.
Wednesday’s 6 p.m. matchup at the Cam Henderson Center in Huntington, West Virginia, will be streamed on ESPN+.
“They’ve been playing better than what their record is,” Plona said of Marshall. “They’ve played nine games and they’ve lost three in a row, but man they’ve played a hard schedule and they’re very talented. Certainly it’s going to be a challenge to go in there and win. So just trying to get right to it and obviously it would be a great road win if we’re able to go over there Wednesday night and get one.”
The Tops got a breakout performance from graduate guard Ryan Myers in the win against Evansville. Myers scored a game-high 27 points – just one point off his career high – and knocked down seven 3-pointers.
RIM PROTECTOR
Evansville tallied 11 blocks against WKU on Saturday, with 6-10 forward Connor Turnbull swatting nine shots on his own.
Marshall has an even more effective shot blocker in 7-4 center Matt Van Komen, who ranks among the nation’s leaders with 23 blocks this season. That could spell trouble for the Tops with their penchant for scoring near the rim this season, but Plona isn’t concerned about how his team gets its points.
“When it comes to shooting and scoring whether its at the rim from 2 or if it’s a shot blocker from 3 – maybe I’m wrong for this, but we do what we do. I don’t think you can think too much … when you decide to go score at the rim, yeah you’ve got to play off two feet. You’ve got to try to get the guy in the air. We probably shot too many in-between, 6- to 7-foot pull-ups. Those are the ones that Turnbull just seemed to pummel at the top of the arc. I mean, you really shouldn’t be shooting a lot of 7 to 8-foot, in-between push shots. That to me says we’re not getting into his body. We didn’t really get into Turnbull’s body at all. So regardless if it’s a shot blocker or not, we want to get to the rim.”
ON THE MEND
Redshirt sophomore guard Kade Unseld has missed four straight games for the Hilltoppers with knee soreness, but the Bowling Green native could soon be back on the court.
Unseld, who hit four 3-pointers and scored 15 points in a career-best performance against Bethel (Tennessee) on Nov. 18, aggravated his knee in that game. Plona said Unseld slipped on a wet spot while trying to help Myers up off the court. An MRI on Sunday revealed a bone bruise.
“I think Kade it’s not a long-term thing,” Plona said. “There’s probably going to be some ups and downs with Kade’s knee throughout his career here at WKU and I guess we kind of know that. But I don’t think it’s anything major and I would expect him to be in uniform on Wednesday night.”
About Jeff Nations
Sports Editor, Bowling Green Daily News
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