WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University women's basketball team got its home schedule off to an impressive start Tuesday night with a 76-72 victory against defending West Virginia Conference champion West Virginia Wesleyan.

Freshman guard Liz Flowers scored a career-high 20 points and hit four free throws in the final 15 seconds to help seal the victory for Coach Lynn Ullom's Hilltoppers (3-2, 1-0).

“I think Liz had a breakout game tonight,” Ullom said. “She did a good job attacking the rim and made some clutch free throws at the end. She showed she can be an impact player at this level.”

The victory didn't come without more than a little drama for West Liberty as the Bobcats (1-2, 0-1) battled back from a 15-point second-half deficit to turn a laugher into a nail-biter down the stretch.

Wesleyan took its first lead of the game, 62-61, on a steal and runout layup by Allie Brown as the clock turned under the 4-minute mark.

That touched off a nerve-wracking stretch that saw the lead change hands 8 times over the next 3:15.

The Bobcats took their largest lead of the night, 70-68, on a power post move by Atavia Blake with 1:10 remaining only to see the Hilltoppers' Hillary Southworth answer with a pair of free throws for a 70-70 deadlock at the 54-second mark.

Southworth then came up with the play of the game, stepping in front of a Wesleyan pass on the wing and beating everyone down the floor for a go-ahead layup with 42 seconds on the clock.

“Hillary obviously didn't play her best game tonight,” Ullom said, “but even though her shots weren't falling, she still helped out with some really big assists and put herself in position to make that steal when we really needed someone to step up and make a play.”

After Browne missed a 3-pointer at the other end, Flowers closed out the win by wrapping her four free throws around a late basket by Browne.

Senior post Meghan Wiseman backed Flowers with 19 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. Southworth finished with 9 points and a game-high 5 assists and Emily Blevins contributed 8 rebounds to share game honors with Wiseman. All 9 Hilltoppers who played finished with at least 2 points and a rebound.

Browne led all scorers for Wesleyan with 22 points while Blake added 20 points in a losing cause.

“We're playing a lot of young kids now so our consistency isn't where it needs to be,” Ullom said. “We did a good job taking care of the basketball tonight except for that one stretch in the second half and that was just making poor decisions with the ball.

“I think we're going to end up with a pretty good team. I'd like to be playing great right now but this early in the season, if we can just be one basket better on any given night, I'll be more than happy to take that.”

The West Liberty women will be idle until Nov. 29 when they travel to Ohio Valley for a 5:30 p.m. game.