WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – West Liberty's Emily Blevins blocked a potential game-winning shot by Concord's All-West Virginia Conference center Jolysa Brown in the waning seconds Saturday to preserve a 56-54 win for the Lady Hilltoppers in their WVIAC opener at the ASRC.

“That's a great win for us,” West Liberty head coach Lynn Ullom said. “Concord is a veteran team that's going to win a lot of basketball games – they were picked No. 2 in the league by the coaches – but our kids battled and held them to 29 percent shooting from the floor.

“We're not going to score 80 points a game this season so we have to make that up on the defensive end. After the first three games, I think our kids are really starting to grasp that concept.”

After missing the front end of a 1-and-1 with 13 seconds remaining, the Hilltoppers (2-1, 1-0) were clinging to a 55-54 lead as the Mountain Lions (2-1, 0-1) sprinted upcourt.

Tanisha Williams curled into the lane for a contested layup that rolled off the front of the iron right to the 6-0 Brown, who went right back up with the follow only to have Blevins soar high to block the shot from behind and corral the carom before it went out of bounds.

Blevins was fouled immediately with 4 seconds left and made 1-of-2 foul tosses to wrap up the scoring. Concord was unable to get off a shot against the WLU defense before the buzzer sounded.

“Our buzzword this season is 'committee,' “ Ullom said. “Hillary Southworth carried us in the early part of the game with her scoring but this was really a team effort. Everybody scored, everybody rebounded and Emily came out of nowhere with that big block at the end of the game. It was a perfect example of the 'committee' approach.”

Southworth led all scorers with a game-high 19 points while Kayla Ayers added 16 points and 7 rebounds. Blevins just missed a double-double with 9 points and 9 boards and Erica Hershberger chipped in with 8 rebounds and 5 assists from her point guard position.

Andrea Bertrand led Concord with 15 points while Williams added 10 off the bench. Brown finished with a game-high 14 rebounds but was held to a season-low 6 points – all in the second half.

West Liberty hits the road on Monday with a 5:15 p.m. game at Alderson-Broaddus.