Women's Basketball | 2/1/2012 9:16:00 PM
Box Score GAME PHOTOS
WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University women's basketball team nearly erased a 22-point second-half deficit Wednesday night but the comeback stalled in the waning minutes as Shepherd pulled away to a 71-60 win at the ASRC.
The Rams (12-9, 9-6) closed out a tightly-played first half with a 13-3 run to open up a 41-30 lead at the break.
The Hilltoppers (11-9, 8-6) continued to struggled when play resumed and Shepherd picked up right where it had left off, stretching the margin out to 56-34 on a conventional 3-point play by Emily Daniel with 13:46 on the clock.
The 22-point margin seemed to light a fire under West Liberty as the hosts dominated the next 10 minutes.
A pair of 3-pointers from
Hillary Southworth and a stepped-up effort on the defensive end turned the tide in a big way for the Hilltoppers, who scored 21 of the game's next 24 points.
Southworth capped the run with a layup off an in-bounds pass, cutting the lead to 59-55 with 3:17 still remaining, but that was as close as West Liberty would get.
The Rams pulled the ball out of the basket and threw over top of the WLU press to stop the bleeding with a runout layup by Daniel at the 3:12 mark.
That touched off a 8-0 Shepherd run that finally put the game out of reach, 67-55, with less than 2 minutes to play.
“Some nights we're just not a very aggressive basketball team,” Hilltopper head coach
Lynn Ullom said. “When we're not an aggressive basketball team, we're not a good basketball team. We don't start playing until the game is absolutely out of hand and by then it's too late.”
Daniel led the Rams with 18 points while Gabby Finchum added 14 points for the visitors, who overcame 21 turnovers with a whopping 46-30 advantage off the glass.
Southworth finished with a career-high 29 points but
Kayla Ayers was the only other double-figure scorer for the Hilltoppers with 17 points.
West Liberty will be idle over the weekend but returns to action Monday night when the Hilltoppers host Ohio Valley in a 5:30 p.m. game.
