HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — Head Coach Mary Taylor Cowles said she hoped to stick around for a few days at this year’s Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

The Lady Toppers (21-9, 15-4 Sun Belt) granted Cowles’ wish on Sunday, coming from 11 points down in the first half to knock off South Alabama and advance to the tournament’s semifinal round.

“We’re happy to be here. We’re happy to be staying for another day,” Cowles said. “I’m really proud of our young ladies and their effort.”

Third-seeded Western will next face No. 2 seed Middle Tennessee at 2:30 p.m. Monday in a geographic rivalry moved south.

Whether or not the Lady Toppers would even get to that point, however, was in serious question through the first half of their game against the Jaguars.

South Alabama (15-16, 9-10 Sun Belt) held Western scoreless until senior forward Arnika Brown hit a field goal more than five minutes into the game, allowing the Jaguars to then jump out to an 11-point lead at the 10:54 mark of the first half.

Enter sophomore forward Keisha Mosley.

The Purdue transfer scored eight points in 10 minutes in the first half, sparking a change of pace that pushed the Lady Toppers out to the lead for good. Mosley said Cowles’ desire to stay in contention rubbed off on her.

“I had the opportunity to come out there and perform,” Mosley said. “Me thinking how I think, I just didn’t want to go home.”

Junior guard Amy McNear hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to cap off a 14-0 Western run and send the Lady Toppers into the half with a 32-24 lead. That lead grew larger as 14 straight points in the first half peaked at 22 straight in the second, and Western put the game away up 21 points with 13:14 to play.

Cowles said she was proud of the way the Lady Toppers worked to get to this point — especially after missing the Sun Belt tournament’s trip to Hot Springs last season.

“This is what you put all those hours and all that time in for, is to get to your postseason conference tournament,” Cowles said.

Lady Topper foul trouble — as both Dominique Duck and Amy McNear exited the game with five personals — allowed the Jaguars to pull within striking distance inside of a minute to play. Western shot 12-for-19 from the free throw line, though, and it proved to be just enough to slip away with a win.

Brown’s team-high 17 points were enough to add her name to the list of 1,000-point scorers in Lady Topper history. McNear and senior guard Kenzie Rich each scored 13 points, and senior forward Dominique Duck added 12.

“My mind is not really set on I, as far as Arnika goes,” Brown said. “Winning this championship would be greater than any individual aspect as far as the season goes.”

Brown completed her double-double performance by pulling down a team-high 10 rebounds.

Breaking records is becoming a broken record for senior forward Arnika Brown.

One week after setting a new school record for rebounds in a game with 24, Brown pulled down 25 rebounds and scored a game-high 18 points against South Alabama, helping the Lady Toppers (17-9, 11-4 Sun Belt Conference) pull out a 67-61 Senior Night win over the Jaguars in Diddle Arena.

“It’s fine, but as long as we won, I don’t really care (about the record),” Brown said. “I don’t really care about records and rebounds. I mean, it’s fun, and I can out-jump everybody, but as long as we win, that’s all that matters to me.”

Western’s four seniors — Brown, Dominique Duck, Kenzie Rich and Jessica Magley — carried most of the load, scoring 44 of the team’s 67 points.

“They brought a lot of confidence and a lot of leadership tonight,” Head Coach Mary Taylor Cowles said. “We were pretty good tonight when those four were on the floor.”

The Lady Toppers out-rebounded South Alabama 53-30, and the seniors accounted for 35 of them.

But Duck said most of the credit goes to Brown.

“Coach Cowles told me to get on the boards and get some rebounds, and I couldn’t because Arnika was over there tap, tap, tapping them to herself,” Duck said, laughing. “It’s a great effort.”

Western jumped out to a 9-0 lead to start the game and led by as many as 15 at the 5:31 mark in the first half.

But the Jaguars finished the half on an 11-4 run, pulling within 33-23 at halftime.

The Lady Toppers still held a 40-31 advantage with 16:42 left in the second half, but South Alabama (14-13, 9-7 Sun Belt) went on an 11-2 run, tying the game at 42-42 with 12:27 left.

And then came the classic Lady Topper second-half push.

Western rattled off a 16-3 run to break a 44-44 tie, stretching out to its largest lead of the second half.

“I just thought we executed and made plays,” Cowles said. “We held our composure, didn’t go into a panic, didn’t change our mindset any, and we continued to think about winning this basketball game.”

The Jaguars cut their deficit to as low as four in the final minute of the game, but Western made six free throws with less than 24 seconds left to ice the win.

“We never hung our heads,” Duck said. “We just kept fighting and made some adjustments in our zone … but we just stayed composed and we knew within ourselves that we could pull out the win.”

The Lady Toppers shot 41.7 percent for the game and held South Alabama to 34.9 percent shooting — including 25 percent in the first half.

Junior guard Amy McNear had 15 points, while Duck added 12.

Rich netted three 3-pointers for nine points, while sophomore forward Teranie Thomas pitched in six.

Junior forward Christian Shelter paced South Alabama with 17 points.

Western finishes its regular season with three straight road games, beginning Saturday at Arkansas State.

With the Senior Night celebration behind them, Rich said that it’s back to business for the Lady Toppers before the Sun Belt Tournament begins.

“I love playing with this team,” Rich said. “We’re all just really happy to get a win on our Senior Day, and hopefully we can carry this over to our next game.”

Tipoff is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. Saturday in Jonesboro, Ark.

Western senior forward Arnika Brown grabs a rebound over Arkansas State senior guard Ebonie Jefferson during Western's a 83-78 game at Diddle Arena Wednesday February 7.

Senior forward Arnika Brown likes to have a good time.

But she also likes to win.

“I’m not really a big, big talker, but once you get to know me, I won’t shut up,” Brown said. “I’m a very fun person to be around. I’ll make you laugh all day long, but once I step on the court, it’s business.”

Even when Brown is in business mode, she says you’ll still hear her on the court.

“Fans like excitement — who doesn’t?” she said. “Nobody wants to see a boring game with everyone just standing around, so I’ve always been the player to get out there and holler and yell on an ‘and-one,’ and I just jump on my teammates a little bit, and like we call it — throw a party on the floor.”

Not all of Brown’s time at Western has been fun and games, however.

Brown was arrested in August 2008 and charged with 11 counts of third-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and five counts of theft by deception under $300.

The legal proceedings stemming from the arrest didn’t conclude until last October with Brown accepting a plea agreement of two years probabtion, 50 hours community service and $600 in restitution and court cost payments.

Brown said she dealt with the legal issues the best way she could, learned from them and is now in the home stretch of an enjoyable senior season.

The Lady Toppers (16-9, 10-4 Sun Belt Conference) have won 11 of their last 14 games, and Brown is averaging 10.7 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.

So life is good.

“I love the game,” Brown said. “I eat, sleep and breathe the game, and when you can do that and actually have fun and not just say, ‘Oh, it’s something I do, and it’s a job,’ that means a lot,” Brown said.

Ask Brown what she enjoys the most on the court, and you’ll get a simple answer — rebounding.

She broke her own school record for most rebounds in a game last Wednesday with a 16-point, 24-rebound performance against Arkansas State — a feat that didn’t shock ASU Head Coach Brian Boyer.

“I’m getting where I’ve been in this a long time, and I’ve never seen a rebounder like Arnika Brown,” Boyer said. “I’m talking of all the teams we’ve played — the top-20 teams or whatever. She is a phenomenal rebounder — phenomenal.”

Brown’s scoring average is down nearly four points from last season, but it’s not really something that concerns her.

“I’m not one of those people — I don’t have to come in and put up 30 points,” she said. “I kind of feel like my rebounding is going to stand out more than me putting up 30 points.”

But Head Coach Mary Taylor Cowles admits that more scoring from her senior wouldn’t be a bad thing.

That was obvious against the Red Wolves, when Brown totaled eight points and seven rebounds in overtime to push Western to an 83-78 win over ASU.

“Obviously we’re better when Arnika’s involved, whether it be scoring points, layups around the basket, going to the boards — defensively, offensively,” Cowles said. “We’re just a whole lot better and a more complete team when we have her as a factor.”

But for now, Brown’s going to keep having fun.

Her career rebounding average (10 per game) stands as a Lady Topper record, and she’s just along for the ride.

“That’s something I can tell my little kids — you know, ‘Your mother was the best rebounder,’ and talk a little trash,” Brown said. “It’s just a great feeling. I’m just very happy to be going out as a senior and to be the leading rebounder. What more can you ask for?”

Senior forward Arnika Brown scored 16 points and pulled in a school-record 24 rebounds, pushing the Lady Toppers to an 83-78 overtime win over Arkansas State Wednesday night in Diddle Arena. ARMANDO L. SANCHEZ/Herald

Arkansas State may have dominated the Lady Toppers in the final minutes of regulation on Wednesday night, but overtime belonged to Arnika Brown.

The senior forward scored Western’s first eight points and pulled down seven rebounds in the extra period, and the Lady Toppers (16-8, 10-3 Sun Belt Conference) gutted out an 83-78 win in Diddle Arena.

Brown finished with 16 points and a school-record 24 rebounds, breaking her own record of 21 set last season against Florida International.

“We penetrated more, and we went inside more,” Head Coach Mary Taylor Cowles said. “Arnika hadn’t touched the ball in probably 10 minutes in regulation, and then we go into overtime … and she was just phenomenal. We got her the basketball in ways that she could score and be productive for us.”

It seemed with eight minutes left that forcing overtime would not even be a consideration for the Lady Toppers.

A layup by sophomore forward Teranie Thomas gave Western a 64-51 advantage at the 8:02 mark, but that’s when Arkansas State (10-15, 5-9 SBC) began to chip away at the lead.

The Red Wolves outscored Western 20-7 over the final minutes of regulation and tied the game at 71-71 on a free throw by Lyndsay Schlup with 31 seconds remaining.

The Lady Toppers had two chances to win — a three-pointer by junior guard Amy McNear with three seconds left and a desperation heave by Brown at the buzzer — but both were no good.

McNear had been in the driver’s seat until Arkansas State’s decisive run, scoring nine second-half points that helped Western break out to a double-digit lead.

But Cowles said the Lady Toppers hit a wall when the Red Wolves made a defensive adjustment into a matchup zone.

“We looked like a deer in the headlights,” Cowles said. “We looked like we didn’t know it, and … they’ve got three or four things they’re going to throw at you. It wasn’t a secret. We just froze.”

McNear said the switch took her out of her offensive game, but that the Lady Toppers were able to stay afloat by adjusting themselves.

“It kind of stopped me a little bit from penetrating like I was doing in the beginning of the second half,” McNear said. “I just took my time and found my teammates, and they got open shots.”

Arkansas State led by as many as five points with 5:06 left in the first half, but Western finished on a 9-2 run to take a 37-35 lead into halftime.

The Lady Toppers quickly amassed a lead in the second half but came up empty-handed on nine of their last 12 possessions in regulation.

Fortunately, they were much more efficient in overtime.

Brown scored four straight baskets for Western to open a 79-76 lead, senior guard Kenzie Rich made a layup, and senior forward Dominique Duck later netted two free throws with 17 seconds remaining to ice the game.

ASU Head Coach Brian Boyer was pleased with the decisive second-half run, but said that Western came up with the spurt that proved most important.

“It would have been easy to roll over (down 13),” Boyer said. “We kept fighting to give ourselves a chance, and unfortunately, the final push of the game was theirs, which we weren’t able to answer.”

The Lady Toppers shot 42.5 percent for the game to ASU’s 45.2 percent, but they recorded 18 more shots and out-rebounded the Red Wolves 51-37.

McNear led all scorers with 21 points, while Duck had 15 points and nine rebounds.

Rich added 14 points, and Thomas pitched in seven.

Four players scored in double figures for ASU, led by Sherina Scott and Meghan Lewis’ 18 points each.

Western next hits the road for a game at Arkansas-Little Rock on Saturday.

Tipoff is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock, Ark.