he Hilltoppers waited until the game’s final buzzer to take their first lead of the contest. Western had trailed North Texas the entire game Saturday until junior guard Anthony Winchester hit arguably the biggest shot of his career.
Winchester’s 35-foot shot at the buzzer gave the Toppers a 93-92 victory over the Mean Green in Denton. The win was Western’s sixth in a row and helped the Toppers stay atop the Sun Belt East Division.
“To make a shot like that in that type of game is a really big deal,” Winchester said. “When you’re a little kid growing up and outside by yourself playing you count down 3, 2, you take a long shot. Growing up it seemed I would do that every day it seemed like.”
Before the magnificent shot, Western’s hopes for a victory looked grim as North Texas drove the length of the court with just over six seconds left and sophomore guard Calvin Watson put in a layup with 3.2 left on the clock.
The basket gave North Texas a 92-90 lead and left Western with little time and the full length of the court.
Freshman guard Ty Rogers in-bounded the ball and had a wide open lane as the Mean Green chose not to guard the in-bound passer. Rogers found Winchester who took it up the floor and nailed the game-winning shot just inside the half court line.
“Anthony came up to me and he said ‘give me the ball, no matter what give me the ball,’” Rogers said. “I had an open lane and I got to see the whole floor and it gave me time to think about what I needed to do.”
The shot capped off a season-high 36 point performance by Winchester.
Western was put in position to win the game after Rogers drilled a three pointer with 13 seconds left to knot the game, 90-90.
The Toppers had clawed their way from a deficit that had reached 25 points on two occasions. North Texas started the game on a 24-2 run. But the Toppers kept nibbling away and at halftime Western had pulled within seven points.
“We told our guys in the last time out to try to get the deficit to single digits,” Coach Darrin Horn said. “We just had to start playing and keep pecking away and try not to get it all back at once.”
Freshman guard Courtney Lee had 18 points and four rebounds. And freshman forward Boris Siakam added eight points and two rebounds.
The freshmen class had a combined 34 points.
However, Western didn’t leave Denton unscaved. Junior guard Danny Rumph went down midway through the first half after flipping over one of the Mean Green defenders. Rumph has been diagnosed with a concussion.
Reach Wes Watt at sports@wkuherald.com.
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