PHILIPPI, W.Va. – West Liberty shot nearly 60 percent from the floor and held off a late Alderson-Broaddus surge to beat the Battlers, 83-79, Saturday night in West Virginia Conference women's basketball action at Rex Pyles Arena.

It was the sixth win in the last seven outings for Coach Lynn Ullom's Hilltoppers (15-6, 13-4) who maintained a double-digit lead for most of the second half before A-B (6-15, 5-12) made things interesting down the stretch.

West Liberty, which had opened up a 45-34 halftime lead on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Hillary Southworth, seemed in complete command when Southworth cashed in a pretty feed from Liz Flowers for a 79-62 lead with just 3:53 remaining.

The improving Battlers, who were coming off back-to-back wins, refused to fold and began to whittle away at the lead as the Hilltoppers struggled to finish off the victory.

Alderson-Broaddus scored 15 of the game's next 16 points as West Liberty compounded some late turnover problems by missing the front end of three consecutive 1-and-1s in the final minute.

Sirshawna Dowdy's driving layup cut the lead to 80-77 with just 14 seconds remaining before WLU's Bri Kamarec finally put the game out of reach by draining a pair of free throws with just 8 ticks showing on the clock.

Southworth led all scorers with 28 points for the Hilltoppers while Meghan Wiseman added 17 points and grabbed 6 rebounds. Jenn Mohney came off the bench with a dozen points on four 3-point bombs. Flowers finished with 6 points and 10 assists.

Cayla Rhodes topped Alderson-Broaddus with 18 points and 13 rebounds while Dowdy and Leah Hurst finished with 17 and 14 points, respectively.

West Liberty hit 32-of-55 (.582) shots from the floor but was just 11-of-19 (.579) from the foul line and lost the battle of the boards by a 40-21 margin.

The Hilltoppers return home to host Charleston on Monday. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. at the ASRC.

GAME NOTES

X West Liberty is 21-1 in its last 22 games against the Battlers

X Southworth scored her 1,000th collegiate point on Saturday. The WLU junior had 47 points two years ago as a freshman at Appalachian State and needs just 26 more to become West Liberty's 28th member of the 1,000-Point Club

X Southworth has now scored 25 or more points in seven consecutive games

X Flowers has dished out 10 assists in three of the past four games

X The Hilltoppers improved to 101-26 (.795) in February games since the 2000-01 season

X West Liberty is 65-1 when scoring 80 or more points since the 2006-07 season – including an 8-0 mark this year