In a rare New Year's Eve game, Western Kentucky University (7-4, 1-0 SBC) opened up defense of its 2008-09 Sun Belt Conference hardware with a 77-65 win over Louisiana-Lafayette (4-9, 1-1 SBC) on Thursday evening at E.A. Diddle Arena. The Hilltoppers have now won 11-straight over the Ragin Cajuns, discounting a pair of victories Louisiana-Lafayette was forced to vacate due to NCAA sanctions in 2004-05.
Winners of four-straight at home, the New Year's Eve match-up was just the sixth in WKU history as the Toppers improve to 5-1 all-time in those contests. The Hilltoppers have won 33 of their last 35 at home, and are 66-5 at Diddle Arena in Sun Belt play since 2000.
Jeremy Evans finished with a season-best 16 points on 7-of-11 from the field to go with eight rebounds, two assists, two blocks, and two steals.
WKU committed a season-low seven turnovers while forcing Louisiana-Lafayette into 18 miscues, resulting in a commanding 24-7 edge in points of turnovers.