Women's Basketball | 1/13/2014 8:49:00 PM
Box Score WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – Jasmin Kiley's 3-pointer with 4:38 remaining touched off a 12-0 run that carried West Liberty to a 107-94 upset of No. 12-ranked Glenville State Monday night in a Mountain East Conference women's basketball stunner at the ASRC.
After dominating the first half, Coach Lynn Ullom's Hilltoppers (8-7, 5-4) had been trading leads with the nationally-ranked Pioneers (13-2, 8-1) for most of the final 20 minutes before taking control down the stretch.
Glenville State came into the game as the highest-scoring women's basketball team in the nation at 102.4 ppg. but West Liberty came up with seven straight defensive stops during the decisive late-game surge.
Kiley's 3-pointer put WLU ahead to stay, 88-86, and a Kiki Simpson rebound hoop made it 90-86 with 4:04 to play. Liz Flowers followed with a 12-foot jumper from the lane, Kailee Howe and Flowers added four straight free throws and Simpson capped the run with a charity toss for a 97-86 Hilltopper advantage with 2:30 to play.
"I thought our offensive efficiency was the key to the game tonight," Ullom said. "Defensively, we weren't great but we were good enough when we needed to be at crunch time."
The Pioneers mounted a late run of their own, closing the gap to 97-94 when Ginny Mills banked in a 3-pointer with 1:13 to go, but Glenville fouled on the in-bounds pass and Pioneer coach Charles Marshall was whistled for a technical.
West Liberty cashed three of the four free throws and went on to score the final 10 points of the game.
"Consistency and discipline are areas where we've struggled this season," Ullom said, "but tonight we did a good job of recognizing where the ball needed to go and getting it there. We shot the ball well, didn't turn it over very much and defended the 3-point line pretty well. They made 8 3-pointers but 3 of them were banked in."
Howe and Flowers were virtually unstoppable on this night as they took turns slashing to the rim to score or draw a foul. The sophomore duo was a combined 22-of-26 from the charity stripe.
Flowers, coming off a career-high 37 points at W.Va. Wesleyan on Saturday, poured in a game-high 33 points and handed out a game-high 6 assists despite missing more than 8 minutes of the second half with foul trouble. Howe backed Flowers with 28 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists.
Simpson had another monster game on the boards, finishing with a double-double of 12 points and 18 rebounds. Rounding out the double-figure scorers for WLU were Kiley with 14 points and Jenn Mohney with 11.
"With Glenville coming out to take away our 3-point shots, we knew there would be lanes available for Liz and Kailee to attack the basket tonight," Ullom said. "Both girls responded with a lot of energy and there were times when they pretty much carried us offensively.
"It also helped that Kiki pulled some huge rebounds for us, especially down the stretch. This was a very good team win."
Kenyona Simmons and Keyanna Tate each had 22 points and 10 rebounds in a losing cause for the Pioneers.
West Liberty will try to build on its momentum Saturday afternoon when the Hilltoppers host Fairmont State in a 2 p.m. game at the ASRC.
