WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University women's basketball team rebounded from its first conference loss in impressive fashion on Saturday with a 91-60 blowout of Pitt-Johnstown at the ASRC.

Coach Lynn Ullom's Hilltoppers (7-3, 5-1) showed no ill effects from Thursday's loss at Davis and Elkins as they raced out to a double-digit lead midway through the first half and spent the rest of the afternoon building on that margin.

“This was a good comeback game for us after a very disappointing night at Davis and Elkins,” Ullom said. “I think our girls felt we were a better team than we showed on Thursday and went out there today with the intention of proving it.”

West Liberty never trailed after Bri Kamarec opened the game with a 3-point bomb and the hosts coasted into the locker room with a 40-21 lead after scoring 16 of the last 21 points in the half.

Any comeback hopes harbored by the Mountain Cats (4-6, 2-5) were quickly dashed as Hillary Southworth keyed another Hilltopper blitz at the start of the second half.

The junior standout scored every one of West Liberty's 15 points during the first 4 1/2 minutes of the period as the Hilltoppers put the game out of reach, 55-26, with 15:33 still to play.

The hosts led by as many as 35 points down the stretch, holding the visitors to just 34 percent shooting (23-for-67) from the floor in a stellar defensive performance.

“We played with a purpose today and we set the tone on the defensive end,” Ullom said. “Pitt-Johnstown has a lot of players who can finish off the dribble if they get a step so we really focused on controlling the dribble defensively and making them work for everything they got.”

Southworth finished with a game-high 23 points to pace four double-figure scorers for the winners.

Jasmin Kiley and Jenn Mohney each came off the bench to hit 4-of-5 3-pointers and finished with 18 and 14 points, respectively. Senior post Meghan Wiseman, who drained a career-high 3-of-3 shots from behind the arc, chipped in with 16 points and 7 rebounds. 

Freshman point guard Liz Flowers just missed a double-double with 10 rebounds and 9 assists while throwing a defensive blanket over UPJ point guard Kaitlynn Fratz.

Inaya Stephenson led Pitt-Johnstown with 16 points off the bench while Fratz, the WVIAC's leading scorer at 21.3 ppg., made just 5-of-16 shots from the floor and finished with a season-low 12 points.

The Hilltoppers hit the road on Monday for a 6 p.m. game at Shepherd.