Shayna Gore’s game-high 26 points were not enough to lift Marshall to a win on Play4Kay day, as visiting Western Kentucky escaped the Cam Henderson Center with a 69-66 overtime win over the Thundering Herd.

“It’s a tough loss,” Thundering Herd head coach Tony Kemper said. “That one hurts. You have to give credit to Western Kentucky,” he said. “They came in here and they came after us early in the game.”

The Herd’s offense found itself going shot-for-shot throughout the contest with the lead changing 18 times in the game with the Herd taking a one-point lead over the Lady Toppers into halftime.

In addition to Gore’s 26, Sophomore guard Kristen Mayo dropped 13 points, while redshirt senior guard Taylor Porter followed behind with 12 points.

Western Kentucky junior forward Dee Givens dropped 23 points, going 6-for-14 in field goals, 3-for-7 in 3-pointers and 8-for-10 in free throws. Sophomore forward Raneem Elgedawy dropped 16 points, while junior guard Alexis Brewer and sophomore forward Arame Niang dropped 11 points each to pace the Lady Toppers.

Kemper said that he thought there was an energy level issue after the Herd came out after Halftime.

“I was pretty pointed in my assessment on where our heads were when we came out after half,” he said. “If we are going to be great, which that is something I am interested in us doing, I shouldn’t have to coach (energy). We didn’t really come out, prepare ourselves and move around enough to be full-speed.”

The Herd had some foul trouble deep into the fourth period of play, racking up ten fouls that allowed WKU to score to eight points. This would continue into overtime when the Herd racked up four more fouls, which the Lady Toppers converted into six points.

Kemper credited the visitors for their performance, highlighting their offense and their playmakers.

“(WKU) has good offensive weapons,” he said. “I thought Dee Givens was really ready to play. We are now in basketball games where it matters to everyone in the room. But they (WKU) were ready to go,” he said. “They needed that game it was a very important game to them.”

With the loss the Herd fell to 15-12 and 9-5 in Conference USA play, while Western Kentucky advanced its record to 15-13 and 9-5 in conference play.

Marshall sophomore guard Kristen Mayo said that after the game is over you just have to move on.

“Yeah there were mistakes that were made and things that we could have done a lot better” she said. “We had times were we just like kind of laid down and you know that is when they made their runs. We got to be steady for a longer time and just move forward from here. Our season is not over. We just got to make the best of it.”

Similarly, Kemper said that the Herd has to learn from the loss.

“I think they will (learn),” he said. “We got a sharp team. We got a focused team. They will learn. We will grow again and get after it.”

The Herd will travel to Norfolk, Virginia, to play its final road game of the regular season against Old Dominion Saturday at the Ted Constant Convocation Center. Tipoff is slated for 4 p.m.

Millard Stickler can be contacted at [email protected].