Women's Basketball | 1/9/2014 10:11:00 PM
Box Score SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. – The West Liberty University women's basketball team squandered an 18-point second half lead here Thursday night, coming away on the short end of a 78-73 score in Mountain East Conference action at the Butcher Center.
The Hilltoppers (6-7, 3-4) appeared to have things well in hand when Colleen McCormick followed in her own miss to give West Liberty its largest lead of the night, 61-43, at the 12:24 mark of the second half.
The Rams (2-9, 2-5) answered with an extended 19-6 run over the next eight minutes, trimming the margin to 67-62 on a Jimyse Brown 3-point play with 4:27 to play.
Jasmin Kiley answered with a 3-pointer for West Liberty, pushing the lead back out to 70-62 with 3:34remaining but that's when the floodgates opened for the Rams.
Shepherd outscored the Hilltoppers, 16-3, over the final 3 1/2 minutes with a pair of Maggie McLoughlin 3-pointers fueling the surge.
A McLoughlin 3-pointer forged the first tie of the second half, 70-70, with 2:16 on the clock and Gabby Flinchum's post move put the hosts ahead to stay, 74-72, with 1:20 to go.
Trailing 76-73 in the waning seconds, Kiley couldn't get a 3-pointer to go down. Flinchum was fouled as she cleared the rebound with 3 ticks remaining and closed out the scoring with a pair of free throws.
Although they never trailed until the final 2 minutes, it was the worst shooting night of the season for the Hilltoppers. West Liberty shot just 29 percent (25-of-85) from the floor, including a 16 percent (8-for-49) showing from behind the 3-point arc.
Shepherd also struggled to find the range in the first half but was a perfect 4-for-4 from the 3-point arc and shot 56 percent (18-of-32) overall in the second half to pull out the win.
Kiley led all scorers with 23 points while Liz Flowers finished with 15 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds for West Liberty. Sophomore center Kiki Simpson had a huge game with 10 points, 4 blocks and a Mountain East Conference record 21 rebounds. The Hilltoppers won the battle of the boards by a 63-43 margin.
Brown led four double-figure scorers for Shepherd with 20 points.
West Liberty will try to rebound Saturday afternoon when they travel to Buckhannon for a 2 p.m. game against West Virginia Wesleyan.
