Senior forward Dominique Duck attempts to drive past Illinois forward Lacey Simpson during the first half of their game at Diddle Arena in the opening round of the Women's National Invitational Tournament on Friday. The Toppers lost the game 68-51. CHRIS FRYER/HERALD

The Lady Toppers didn’t seem themselves Friday night.

Junior guard Amy McNear, Western’s leading scorer, recorded just one point and was 0-for-9 from the field.

Senior guard Kenzie Rich, Western’s biggest perimeter threat, finished 2-of-10 from 3-point range. Senior post threat Arnika Brown was just 1-of-8 in the paint.

And no one else fared much better.

The Lady Toppers (21-11) shot an abysmal 22.4 percent from the field as a whole, and Western saw its season end with a 68-51 loss to Illinois in the first round of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament in Diddle Arena.

“Their defense was pretty tough, but then again, it was kind of our fault too because we weren’t hitting shots like we usually do,” junior guard Hope Brown said. “Then we tried to penetrate, and we’d get in there and things weren’t going our way. We struggled a little bit, but we left it out there – we tried and just kept shooting.”

The Lady Toppers were 7-of-36 in the second half – a 19.4 percent clip – but Head Coach Mary Taylor Cowles said a dangerous tone was set even before the break.

“I think it was a very obvious situation where we struggled offensively in the first half, and it really affected our defense,” Cowles said. “You can struggle offensively and find a way to win, but you can’t let the other team shoot 50 percent.”

Illinois (17-14) shot 49.1 percent for the game and was sparked by reserve guard Whitney Toone’s first-half play.

Toone, who came into the contest averaging 2.6 points per game, scored 18 of her 20 points in the first half to help the Illini take a 41-30 halftime lead.

“That’s really irritating as a coach when you give something up like that in a half,” Cowles said. “I think it was irritating to our team. We ended up doing a much better job on her in the second half, but then you kind of pick your poison.”

Western fell into a 25-18 hole with 8:21 left in the first half but tied the game at 25 with a quick 7-0 run.

Illinois punched right back, rattling off a 16-2 run over the next five minutes. A double-clutch 3-pointer by Rich at the buzzer closed the gap to 11 at the half.

The Illini stretched their lead to 54-37 with 12 minutes remaining in the game, but Western clawed back within eight at the 5:51 mark with an 11-2 run.

Then the proverbial lid on the basket sealed shut.

The Lady Toppers missed shot after shot around the basket and were able to come no closer.

“We’d make some runs and get some really good looks and it not fall,” Cowles said. “I know of two possessions where not only did we have some kind of easy shots not go in, but then we even had a second opportunity with an offensive rebound and missed it.

“But there were some times we took some not-so-good shots, and I think that played into the frustration that we were probably feeling.”

Senior forward Dominique Duck paced the Lady Toppers with 13 points. Hope Brown finished with 10 points, and Rich added eight.

Sophomore forward Keisha Mosley pitched in seven points, while Arnika Brown had five points and 15 rebounds.

With her effort, Arnika Brown tied Crystal Kelly for the Lady Topper single-season rebounding record at 357.

Center Jenna Smith led Illinois with 21 points and 10 rebounds.

The careers of Western’s four seniors – Arnika Brown, Duck, Rich and forward Jessica Magley – end with the loss, but Duck said there was no reason for the players to hang their heads.

“I think everybody just came out and we fought hard for loose balls, and everybody put out the effort, so I can’t be too disappointed about that,” she said. “The ball didn’t drop in our favor tonight, but I thought we had a great team effort. We fought through it but just didn’t come out on top.”

After the Lady Toppers fell to Middle Tennessee in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Tournament, they didn’t watch the women’s NCAA tournament selection show on Monday from the edge of their seats.

There was no ticket to the Big Dance — only hope for a berth in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament that might be coming.

Then Arkansas-Little Rock received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament — a surprising second bid from the Sun Belt — and Western’s post-season fire started burning again.

“I think it’s just a given in our program that we’re going to take advantage of opportunities to compete and represent WKU,” Head Coach Mary Taylor Cowles said. “The ultimate goal is to obviously play in the Big Dance and get to the NCAA tournament, but we knew with the loss to Middle in the semifinals that that wasn’t going to happen. But they quickly focused their attention and their efforts on, ‘OK, let’s take advantage of this opportunity.’”

UALR’s inclusion in the NCAA tournament secured an automatic WNIT bid for the Lady Toppers (21-10) as the next highest finisher in the Sun Belt, and they’ll begin their post-season journey when they host Illinois in the first round tonight.

“Nobody wants to finish their career with a loss,” senior forward Dominique Duck said. “That Middle Tennessee game was a heartbreaker. It was tough because we had fought so hard to get back in the game, and we just never dropped our heads.

“To be able to get another chance to pick up some wins and go out on top is big for us.”

Western last competed in the WNIT in 2007 when the Lady Toppers lost to Wisconsin in the semifinals.

The program made the NCAA tournament in 2008, but last season’s 16-13 record brought no invitations from the WNIT or elsewhere.

So Cowles said the Lady Toppers are hungry for postseason play, no matter what the stakes are.

“If you’re a competitor, then that’s exactly what you want to do — continue to play and have the opportunity to compete,” she said. “Postseason play can be very, very valuable for a basketball team, and we’ve really seemed to take advantage of that in years past.”

The Lady Tops last met Illinois (16-14) in a first-round loss in the 2002 WNIT.

They will seek revenge for that defeat without two of their young guards, as it was announced Wednesday that freshmen Lashay Davis (7.4 points per game) and Courtney Clifton (4.1 ppg) have decided to leave the team.

Senior guard Kenzie Rich said the remaining guards will have to make up for lost contributions of both freshmen, especially the sixth-man Davis.

But Rich said the team has all the tools to advance to the second round, where either Marquette or Eastern Illinois awaits.

“We always give it our all, but I really think we’re going to give it on Friday night,” Rich said. “We want to end our season with a win — not a loss — so we’re all really excited to be back in Diddle.”

Game time is set for 7 p.m. Friday in Diddle Arena. Tickets are $5 for students, although the first 100 will be admitted free.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — The Lady Tops reached one of their season-long goals in securing 20 wins, but Alysha Clark ensured Western wouldn’t go much further than that.

Clark scored 44 points — a Sun Belt Conference Tournament record — in leading second-seeded Middle Tennessee (24-5) past the No. 3-seeded Lady Tops, 76-63, in the tournament’s semifinal round Monday at Summit Arena.

A teary-eyed coach Mary Taylor Cowles said she’s not sure what’s next for Western, which is all but guaranteed to miss the NCAA Tournament. But Cowles said she and the outgoing seniors would accept what they’re given.

“If our name’s called, we’re ready to play ball,” she said. “Obviously it’s not the tournament we want to be in just because that’s what we started on Aug. 31 — the first week of school — getting in the weight room and out on the track and on the floor condition.

“That’s what you work for — to get to the big dance.”

Clark broke Arkansas-Little Rock forward Chastity Reed’s 41-point record, also set on Monday. Even through Clark’s performance — and the sequential 36-16 difference of points in the paint — Cowles said the Lady Toppers never gave up.

“I think that demonstrated something that’s special to WKU and Lady Topper basketball, and that’s an attitude of we’re not going to quit,” Cowles said. “That, as a coach, makes me very very proud.”

The Lady Toppers (21-10) opened slow for the second day in a row, going down 20-4 before eight minutes had passed.

But unlike Sunday, when Western recovered and went on to beat South Alabama, there was no answer to Clark and the rest of the Lady Raiders.

Middle Tennessee shook off a 9-0 Lady Topper run that put Western in striking distance by running out to a 15-point halftime lead. Clark finished the half with 23 points, more than the Lady Toppers combined.

Senior forward Dominique Duck blamed Western’s slow start on the Lady Toppers’ inability to finish easy baskets. Western shot 27.6 percent from field goal range in the first half and 35.4 percent for the game.

“We just buried ourselves, and it took a lot of energy to fight back and come back,” Duck said. “Middle’s a good team, and every time we threw something at them, they countered it with something else.”

The Lady Raiders only increased their lead — peaking at 21 points with 15:06 to play — out of the second half. Western did challenge once more thanks to senior guard Kenzie Rich’s 20 second half points, pulling to within 10 points with 2:07 to play, but Middle Tennessee spurted ahead to finish the game on a 7-4 run.

Rich’s 20 points paced Western, with junior guard Amy McNear adding 15. Duck was the third and final Lady Topper to reach double figures with 10 points.

Clark’s 44 points accounted for more than half of Middle Tennessee’s points and led up to only four Lady Raiders scoring on the day.

After being denied an NCAA Tournament berth again, Rich said she’s now ready to move on to other postseason play.

“It’s frustrating not being able to win the tournament, because that was one of our goals in the beginning of the year,” Rich said. “We’ve just go to forget about this, get back to work, and hopefully we can win another tournament.”

Cowles said the road to postseason play starts with a few days off for the Lady Toppers, who join Western’s students on spring break for the rest of the week.

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.