GAME NOTES: The top team in Conference USA hits the road on Thursday, as the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers take on the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs at the Thomas Assembly Center.

The Hilltoppers have yet to drop a conference outing and have won nine straight games overall, with the last setback being a 76-67 loss to fourth- ranked Louisville five days before Christmas. Last weekend, WKU registered an 83-74 victory against Texas-San Antonio to move to 7-0 in C-USA action, just ahead of Louisiana Tech and UAB which are 6-1.

The Bulldogs have been conquering one opponent after another at home recently, stringing together 22 consecutive victories at the TAC. Last weekend, Louisiana Tech was on the road at Rice and managed to come away with a 58-45 victory, two days after bowing to North Texas in Denton.

Western Kentucky leads the all-time series by a count of 15-13, but the most recent meeting took place back in 2001 with the Bulldogs claiming a 73-72 win in double-overtime.

The Hilltoppers shot an impressive 12-of-24 from 3-point range the last time out versus visiting UTSA, with Chris Harrison-Docks doing the majority of the damage as he converted all but three of his nine chances on the outside. He finished with 20 points after failing to make even one more field goal from inside the arc. George Fant responded with a double-double consisting of 17 points and a game-high 13 rebounds, followed by Trency Jackson and T.J. Price with 13 points apiece.

In conference play, Fant is averaging a double-double for WKU as he drops in 18.4 ppg and pulls down 11.6 rpg, and those numbers come despite him fouling out of a pair of contests. Price, who continues to make his way up the all- time scoring list for the Hilltoppers, is responsible for another 17.4 ppg as he makes good on 41.7 percent of his 3-point tries. Defensively, WKU limits its foes to only 25.7 percent accuracy on the outside.

The Bulldogs put forth one of their best defensive efforts of the season against Rice at Tudor Fieldhouse, limiting the home team to just 14 field goals while forcing 18 turnovers, en route to the 13-point win. Erik McCree and Alex Hamilton both tallied 13 points for the visitors, the former pulling down eight rebounds and making three steals, while Raheem Appleby tallied 10 points on a dismal 4-of-17 shooting performance. Directing traffic for the Bulldogs was Kenneth Smith with nine more assists.

Smith has been sacrificing his own offense all season long in order to make sure that his teammates are satisfied with their scoring opportunities. Of the 99 assists issued by LaTech in conference play, 54 have come from a point guard who is struggling to generate only 2.7 ppg as he shoots a dismal 25.0 percent from the floor. Hamilton checks in with 19.0 ppg and Appleby another 17.7 ppg to more than make up for the difference.

At some point the Bulldogs are going to have that lengthy home win streak come to an end and since WKU is the only team in C-USA which is currently better, it only makes sense that the Hilltoppers take care of business on Thursday.