WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University women sprinted out to a big second-half lead and held off a late West Virginia State surge down the stretch to hand the Yellowjackets their first loss of the season, 71-64, Tuesday night at the ASRC.

Hillary Southworth scored a game-high 23 points while Jenn Mohney and Meghan Wiseman added 15 and 14 points, respectively, as the Lady Hilltoppers (5-2, 3-0) won for the fifth time in their last six games.

Although West Liberty struggled through some rough spots during the course of the evening, head coach Lynn Ullom was happy to come away with the victory.

“We need to do a better job of maintaining our focus,” Ullom said. “We've developed a habit of playing really well in spurts to build a big lead only to wind up hanging on for dear life down the stretch. This was our seventh game tonight and we've blown double-digit leads in five of them

“That being said, our No. 1 objective every time we take the floor is to win the game. I've always said I'd rather play bad and win than play well and lose. This wasn't our best effort tonight but we accomplished the objective.”

The Hilltoppers used a big first-half surge to take charge of the proceedings.

Mohney drained a 3-pointer to forge a 14-14 tie as the clock turned under 12 minutes and Southworth followed with a conventional 3-point play off a fast break and West Liberty was on its way.

Those two hoops ignited a 10-0 Hilltopper blitz but they were far from finished.

After State (3-1, 3-1) had closed the gap to 23-21 on a power post move by Janelle Williams with 6:41 on the clock, West Liberty reeled off 19 of the next 21 points to push the lead to 42-23 just before intermission.

Mohney scored all 15 of her points – including four 3-pointers – in the first half to help the Hilltoppers open up the big lead.

“Jenn has the ability to make those shots,” Ullom said. “That's back-to-back games she's come off the bench and hit multiple big shots for us.”

The lead hit 21 points on multiple occasions in the second half. The Yellowjackets were able to close the gap in the last 5 minutes but couldn't get the margin into single figures until less than a minute remained.

Jasmine Blanton led State with 17 points while Williams and Jordan Brock added 15 points each.

The West Liberty women host Glenville State on Saturday. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. at the ASRC

GAME NOTES

X Wiseman became the 21st Lady Hilltopper to join the 500-rebound club during the second half

X West Liberty has won 10 of its last 11 games against State and holds a 31-8 series lead

X Ullom and Yellowjacket head man David Smith have combined for 1,014 career victories in 53 seasons as collegiate head coaches