Western probably experienced a little déjà vu on Thursday night.

The Hilltoppers (18-12, 11-6 Sun Belt Conference) were taken to overtime on the road for the second straight game, and it took another clutch performance by senior guard A.J. Slaughter during the extra minutes to help them secure a 78-69 win over Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton, Fla.

“We had our chance to win it in regulation, but the guys toughed it out and had a very confident overtime, which was great,” Head Coach Ken McDonald told Western’s Big Red Radio Network.

Slaughter, who had 13 points in overtime at Arkansas State Saturday, scored seven of his 19 points in the extra period Thursday.

The victory was the Toppers’ third straight on the road and fifth straight overall – both season highs.

It also kept Western’s hopes of grabbing the No. 3 seed in the Sun Belt Tournament alive.

“They made this a tough win,” McDonald said. “I’m excited that our guys are in these tough games down the stretch, to be honest, and finishing them. We’ve had enough close ones that haven’t come up on our end.”

With FAU trailing 57-48 with 6:05 left, a comeback didn’t look likely for the Owls (14-14, 10-7 Sun Belt).

But they got a little help from FAU freshman guard Greg Gantt’s hot shooting and the Toppers’ poor free throw shooting.

After falling behind by nine, Gantt made back-to-back 3-pointers to pull FAU within three.

The Hilltoppers clung to that same lead in the final minute, but Gantt came up big again – this time with a 3-pointer to tie the game at 61 with 18 seconds left.

“We loosened up a little bit with our 3-point defense,” McDonald said. “They made some tough shots. Give them credit, they made some tough shots.”

Junior forward Steffphon Pettigrew had a chance to win after getting fouled with 1.5 seconds left, but he missed the first free throw and was called for a lane violation on the second.

Pettigrew finished the game 1-of-6 from the free throw line, while the Toppers were 12-of-21 overall.

“He put two good shots up there, but he just missed,” McDonald said. “What you love about Steff, though, is that he was coming right back at them.”

Western made 6-of-6 free throws in overtime, FAU didn’t record a field goal, and the Toppers charged back as Slaughter found his stroke. He opened overtime with a quick jumper, added a 3-pointer and broke the game open with a desperation pump-fake shot from just inside the arc with 1:20 left.

FAU crawled back within five, but senior guard Anthony Sally and senior forward Jeremy Evans netted all of their free throws to ice the game.

“Sally is always clutch when you need him toward the end,” McDonald said. “He has a lot of confidence, and he’s a big part of finishing out games.”

The Toppers led for most of the first half and took a 28-24 advantage into halftime.

The Owls regained the lead by scoring the first five points of the second half, but Western rattled off a 9-0 run and was in control until Gantt’s game-tying shot in the final seconds.

The Toppers dominated the boards, out-rebounding FAU 47-25.

“We’re proud of that,” Evans said. “That was one of the focuses coming into the game – just crashing on the boards, and I think we did a good job.”

Slaughter’s late theatrics overshadowed a big night by Evans, who scored 19 points and pulled down a career-high 17 rebounds. He also recorded two blocks, which brings his career total to 213 – one shy of the Western record set by Chris Marcus.

Junior forward Sergio Kerusch added 11 points and 12 rebounds. Pettigrew pitched in 16 points.

Gantt led the way for the Owls with 19 points.

The Toppers finish their regular season at 7 p.m. Saturday at Florida International.

McDonald said another dogfight in Miami wouldn’t shock him – but then again, he’s not expecting any more easy games.

“Going into the end of the season, you expect that every game could be one or two possessions,” McDonald said. “When you know that going in, and you’ve been in these types of games, it’s a real positive.”

After losing five straight games at one point this season, Evans said people will see a different team from here on out.

“We don’t want any more losses like the ones we had earlier in the season,” he said. “We learned from those losses, and we’re going to keep on going.”

It’s often said that you can’t gauge a team based only on one game.

That may not apply to Western, which followed up last January’s overtime win against South Alabama by dismantling the Jaguars for 40 minutes Thursday night.

The Toppers (16-12, 9-6 Sun Belt Conference) jumped out to a 23-point halftime lead and went on to win 99-69, fueled by senior guard A.J. Slaughter’s career-high 31 points, 6 assists and 0 turnovers.

Not bad for a Senior Day of work.

“I’m happy with it,” Slaughter said. “It just shows what we’re capable of. We can always come back to this tape and watch it, and when everyone’s clicking and we’re playing hard what we can do.”

As Slaughter, senior forward Jeremy Evans, senior guard Anthony Sally and senior forward Nemanja Milosevic exited the floor for the final time with 5:10 to play, the four seniors kissed the red towel at Diddle’s center court.

Head Coach Ken McDonald took credit for that plan and said the moment capped a night of what basketball is all about — fun.

“I think we’ve been having more fun, and obviously winning is a big part of that,” McDonald said. “Feeling good about yourselves is also a big part of that. We’ve been playing harder, we’ve been more focused, the guys have been doing a great job with preparation.”

And although McDonald often stresses defense, Thursday’s night’s game was one of offensive runs.

South Alabama (15-12, 7-8 Sun Belt) ended up on the wrong end of many, going from a 9-7 lead with 15:50 left in the first half to down 23-12 almost four minutes later.

The Toppers stretched the lead to as many as 24 points in the first half, building a 53-30 halftime lead.

And it never got any easier for the Jaguars.

Western backed up 64 percent shooting in the first half by shooting 46.2 percent from the field in the second, and the Toppers jumped out to lead by as many as 33 points with 1:50 to pay. Evans, who reached 1,000 career points with his first field goal of the game, said that after a conscious effort to improve shooting, work paid off.

“That’s something we continue to work on,” Evans said. “We just want to keep going and keep on getting better.”

Compared to some tight wins Western had to fight for early in the season, McDonald said it’s encouraging to see his team play without a letdown — especially the seniors.

“You come to the realization when they are walking off the floor that you’re not going to see them out there anymore,” McDonald said. “It is amazing how good things happen to people who work hard, eventually, and sometimes right away.”

In front of Diddle’s second-largest crowd of the season—6,259—five Toppers reached double figures, including junior forward Sergio Kerusch with 12 points, Evans with 11, freshman guard Jordan Swing with 11 and junior forward Steffphon Pettigrew with 13.

Western out-scored South Alabama’s bench 42-5 after McDonald elected to start the four seniors with Kerusch, sitting Pettigrew for the beginning of the game.

Thursday night’s 99 points marked the most the Toppers have scored all season.

Western tips at 7:05 p.m. Saturday night at Arkansas State, when the Toppers will look to sweep the Red Wolves.

Western has had its fair share of heartbreaking road losses this season.

But none have been as much of a whirlwind as Thursday night.

The Hilltoppers (12-11, 5-6 Sun Belt Conference) let a three-point lead with 23 seconds slip away, and Western watched a strong road win turn into a 67-66 defeat to Louisiana-Monroe at the Fang-Ewing Coliseum in Monroe, La.

“We’re still not understanding — on the road, at this juncture — that you’ve got to come out and defend hard on the road,” Head Coach Ken McDonald told Western’s Big Red Radio Network. “It’s just taking too long to figure out, and that’s the disappointing part.”

The Toppers led 66-63 with under a minute remaining when ULM’s Kenneth Averette knocked down a 3-pointer with 23.6 seconds left.

Junior forward Sergio Kerusch, playing in his first game since suffering a broken foot in December, turned the ball over on the ensuing possession and fouled ULM guard Dynile Forbes under the basket at the other end of the court.

Forbes netted one-of-two free throws with 1.9 seconds on the clock, and Western wasn’t able to get a final shot off.

McDonald was none too pleased with the events of the final seconds, claiming that he had requested a timeout before Kerusch’s pivotal turnover.

“I already watched the tape,” McDonald said. “He looks right at me and doesn’t give me the call, and then they go down and score. Back-to-back plays by the same official — we’ll talk about that with our (Sun Belt) commissioner tonight.”

Kerusch’s return was overshadowed in the first half by Forbes’ shooting display.

The senior made six-of-six 3-pointers and scored 20 points before halftime, pushing the Warhawks (10-14, 5-8 SBC) out to a 38-28 lead at the break.

“I think one (of Forbes’ 3-pointers) was highly contested,” McDonald said. “The other ones, you’re missing him in the zone and you’re over-helping on non-scorers.”

The Toppers exploded out of the locker room, scoring the first eight points of the second half to pull within 38-36 with 16:26 left.

Western finally grabbed its first lead of the game on a 3-pointer by freshman guard Caden Dickerson with 11:54 remaining and eventually pushed that advantage to 60-54 with a dunk by senior forward Jeremy Evans at the 5:00 mark.

ULM scored six straight to tie the game with 3:19 left, but senior guard A.J. Slaughter and Evans hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Toppers a 66-60 lead with 2:02 remaining.

That margin shrunk to three with 1:45 left. And then the wheels fell off.

The Warhawks finished the game on a 7-0 run after falling behind by six, and McDonald said it all comes back around to familiar concepts — focus and intensity.

“We’ve got to lock in defensively and get better,” he said.

ULM shot 45.1 percent from the floor for the game and 50 percent from 3-point range.

Western shot 44.2 percent and out-rebounded the Warhawks 31-27.

Kerusch recorded seven points and five rebounds in 19 minutes in his return.

Evans led Western with 19 points and five blocks, while Slaughter added 18 points.

Dickerson pitched in 10 points, while junior forward Steffphon Pettigrew had nine.

Slaughter left the game in the final minutes of the first half after aggravating his sprained right thumb but was able to start the second half. McDonald said the senior had jammed the thumb and that they would continue to monitor for any swelling.

Forbes paced ULM with 22 points, scoring just two points in the second half — including the game-winning free throw.

“Coach gave us a talk, and he just had guys step up and lock him down,” Evans said. “That’s what we wanted to do.”

Western next hosts Troy at 7 p.m. Saturday in Diddle Arena.

According to Evans, the Toppers are starting to feel a sense of urgency as the regular season comes to a close.

“These games have been heartbreakers,” Evans said. “We’ve just got to turn it around somehow, and we’ve got to hurry up, because it’s going to be too late after a while.”

Senior forward Jeremy Evans puts up two points in the first half to give Western an early lead against the University of New Orleans on Saturday afternoon in Diddle Arena. Western won 76-56. CHRIS WILSON/Herald

If the Toppers were still looking for leadership heading into Saturday’s game against New Orleans, they may have found some in two of the youngest players on the court.

Freshman guards Jamal Crook and Caden Dickerson recorded career highs in points to lead Western (12-10, 5-5 Sun Belt Conference) over the Privateers 76-56 in Diddle Arena, snapping a five-game losing streak that dates back to Jan. 18.

Head Coach Ken McDonald, who has called for someone besides senior guard A.J. Slaughter to step up at the guard spot, said he was happy with how the freshmen handled themselves on the defensive end. He added that this was one step closer to putting together a 40-minute effort, and that started on the defensive end.

“Jamal Crook was terrific with his deflections and how active he is. You see how long and athletic he is when he wants to be,” McDonald said. “When you have guards that are willing to get out there and pressure and do things, it kind of energizes everybody.

“I thought, overall, there was just a lot more intensity on the defensive end.”

Dickerson tallied 14 points in 34 minutes played, and Crook finished with 11 points in 24 minutes in a performance that he self-graded as “outstanding.”

Slaughter agreed.

“Yeah, I’ll give it to him — he played a real good game,” Slaughter said.

Crook considered his game a statement, both to McDonald that he’s a trustworthy point guard and his teammates, who have seen Crook come from the bench to take senior guard Anthony Sally’s starting spot away.

But that started, according to Crook, by listening to some advice.

“The main thing was that Coach wanted me to come out with high energy, so I did that,” Crook said. “I just wanted to show the guys what I was capable of doing as a freshman coming in.”

New Orleans (7-15, 2-9 Sun Belt) took a 43-36 deficit into halftime — a margin Western only increased throughout the second half.

Slaughter hit a three-pointer on the Toppers’ first field-goal attempt out of the locker room, and junior forward Steffphon Pettigrew pushed the lead to 10 points, 50-40, on a pull-up jumper with 18:30 to play.

Western led by as many as 23 points in the second half, emptying the bench nearly to the point where injured junior forward Sergio Kerusch jokingly made an attempt to enter the game with less than a minute left.

For the game, the Toppers shot 48.3 percent and earned 25 points off turnovers, pressuring the guard-oriented Privateers into 25 turnovers.

Junior forward Jeremy Evans scored 10 of Western’s first 12 points, reaching double figures with 14:33 to play in the first half.

But the Privateers matched, going blow for blow with the Toppers until two Crook’s nine first-half points pushed Western ahead 39-30 with just over three minutes to play.

New Orleans closed the lead to seven points before the half but never came closer than that in the final 20 minutes.

Although Evans ended up with only three more points, giving him 13 for the game, he said the overall effort was a big weight off the Toppers’ shoulders.

“It’s a big relief,” Evans said. “We know that we can have our ups and downs and (the seniors) still have our heads up, but just for our young guys, to show them that we’re not going to let up, and it doesn’t matter — we still have games left.”

Saturday’s game marks the Privateers’ final game in Diddle as a member of the Sun Belt, as the school recently announce plans to switch to Division III athletics this July.

Western takes four days off before traveling to Louisiana-Monroe for a 7 p.m. Thursday night tipoff. And after trudging through eight games in 17 days, Slaughter said it’s good to be home.

“It’s always great to sleep in your own bed and have those few days to yourself to get ready for a game,” Slaughter said.