The Lady Toppers’ guards have a lot to handle this season.

With head coach Mary Taylor Cowles implementing a new offense, Western’s guards not only have to pick up the offense quickly, but they also have to direct traffic and help out other players whenever possible.

But with a new offense and it still being early in the season, things don’t always go as smoothly as they should.

“There’s a lot more movement in (the new offense),” junior guard Kenzie Rich said. “And it’s taken us a while to get used to it, and now you have to kinda think about it a little bit.”

In order to help the offense, the defense needs to create turnovers and create chances for the offense to score easy baskets and get open looks in the transition, Rich said.

In Western’s first game, against Murray State, the defense was able to force 15 turnovers and scored on six of those turnovers.

In the second game, against Vanderbilt, the Lady Toppers still managed to force 15 turnovers but only scored on three of those transition plays while giving up the ball 25 times.

“Our offense is really based off of our defense,” sophomore guard Amy McNear said. “If we can turn the ball over, that gets us points on the board on offense. So creating turnovers and making the other team get frustrated with themselves will be a big key to Friday.”

In a way, the excitement from creating a turnover doesn’t always mean good things for the Lady Toppers.

“We struggle a little bit because sometimes we get so anxious to get the fast break,” McNear said. “And sometimes we get a little bit out of control and we have to limit our turnovers in the transition.”

McNear said the key to making up for those turnovers is to keep trying on defense and maybe the net turnover will work in Western’s favor.

So far this season McNear has found herself picking up her third foul earlier than she would like in the game, but fellow sophomore guard Hope Brown has been able to come into the game without much change, McNear said.

Cowles has told McNear to play more with her feet and not so much with her hands to stay out of foul trouble.

Sometimes Western uses both McNear and Brown on the court at the same time, a move that can cause opposing defenses a lot of confusion as to who will get the ball and where it’s going to go, McNear said.

“I think those two realize that there are points needed, rebounds needed and some defense needed for this basketball team to be good,” Cowles said earlier this season. “And they have both accepted that.”

The Lady Toppers will play George Washington at 7 p.m. on Friday at Diddle Arena.