HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Western Kentucky’s women’s basketball completed the first stage of what it hopes will be a lengthy mission in Rocket City on Thursday.

The third-seeded Lady Toppers fought past a game effort from No. 6 Florida International to claim a 73-66 win in the Conference USA Tournament quarterfinals at VBC Propst Arena.

WKU (23-8) never trailed, but never really shook the Panthers either — at least until the final minute.

“It was a really tough-fought game, by FIU as well,” Lady Toppers coach Greg Collins said. “This time of year, sometimes the season doesn’t go the way you want it to go, but they came in and fought like they were playing to get to play on Saturday — so a lot of compliments to them.

” … We talked in the locker room (after the win) that maybe earlier in the year if we had some of that adversity that we battled today we may not have stuck together like we stuck together today. We had to overcome some things that didn’t go in our favor, but I always tell them — they never flinched. They just kept locked in and they kept doing what we do and just focused on surviving and getting this win and giving ourselves a chance to play again tomorrow.”

The Lady Toppers will face No. 2 seed Middle Tennessee in the CUSA semifinals Friday night at the Propst Center. The two teams split two meetings in the regular season.

Senior guard Alexis Mead led the Lady Tops with team highs of 21 points, nine assists and four steals in the win against FIU. The nine assists matched her career high and it was her sixth 20-point performance of the season. Mead passed Meral Abdelgawad on WKU’s all-time scoring list, moving into 24th place with 1,366 career points.

The Lady Toppers jumped on the Panthers early, forcing four turnovers to help spark a game-opening 14-0 run. Zsofia Telegdy knocked down a pair of 3-pointers, but soon headed for the bench with foul trouble.

Those fouls helped keep FIU (11-19) afloat, and might have done more if the Panthers had done better than hit 19-of-35 (54.3%) from the free-throw line. WKU only got to the line less than half as much, but made them count by sinking 14-of-16 (87.5%).

“You never want to leave money on the table when it comes to that, but attrition is real,” FIU coach Jesyka Burks-Wiley said. “These kids I think have given me from the top of their follicles to the end of their toenails. And when you’re going against people that have got multiple rotations, it’s tough. I definitely hate that we left that much money on the table, but the fact that we created 35 opportunities … it’s hard not to be proud of that as a coach.”

The Panthers’ strategy was soon apparent — feed 6-foot-4 senior Isnelle Natabou in the paint and let her power up toward the rim to finish or draw a foul — sometimes both.

Natabou was 8-of-11 from the field for a game-high 23 points, hitting 7-of-12 from the free-throw line.

After that initial onslaught by WKU, the Panthers regrouped with a 9-0 run and trailed just 19-12 by the end of the first quarter.

The Lady Toppers struggled to generate much offense in the second quarter, tallying 10 points as FIU further gained to make it a 29-25 game by halftime.

The Lady Tops’ lead dipped to two points early in the third, but Destiny Salary found Josie Gilvin for a corner 3-pointer, pushing the lead to five. FIU hit a free throw, but a quick 5-0 run for the Lady Tops forced FIU into a timeout, with WKU leading 39-31 with 7:25 left in the third.

Acacia Hayes’ first points of the game came on a Mead assisted 3 from the wing, extending the Lady Topper lead to nine.

Salary’s back-to-back baskets pushed WKU’s lead to 48-38 with 2:42 left in the third. The Panthers closed the quarter with four straight points to trim the deficit again to 53-46.

The Lady Tops pushed ahead again in the fourth, with Telegdy hitting another 3 with 6:58 to play to put her team up by 12.

FIU got back within seven points before Gilvin delivered the back-breaker with a baseline jumper that put WKU up 70-61 with 1:05 to play.

Gilvin continued her strong play, tallying a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds despite briefly leaving the game when she was hit in the face by FIU”s Aaliyah Pitts in the third quarter — the foul was upgraded to intentional.

Gilvin said after the game she’s OK, but the prognosis was less certain for Hayes after she left with an ankle injury in the fourth quarter.

“She’s a tough kid, if she can go she’ll go,” Collins said of Hayes, who scored 10 points in the win.

MTSU is up next as the Lady Tops push toward reaching Saturday’s championship. WKU won the first matchup at home 63-58 on Jan. 18, but fell 73-63 in the rematch on Feb. 15 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

“We’ve played these teams — everybody’s played each other at least twice already, so we’ll get back and we’ll be ready,” Collins said. “There’s not a lot extra to do right now. You’ve got to be who you are and you’ve got to be the best at who you want to be.”