WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The No. 18-ranked West Liberty University women's basketball team combined a blurry-fast transition game with some deadly perimeter shooting in an 87-65 rout of Charleston Saturday afternoon at the ASRC.

Liz Flowers drained a career-high 8 3-pointers and Kailee Howe ran the fast break to near-perfection, breaking her own Mountain East Conference record with 14 assists, as the Lady Hilltoppers (2-1, 1-0) dominated the Golden Eagles (2-1, 0-1) in the mutual MEC opener.

"Charleston's a much bigger team than we are but we have a lot of girls who can run the floor and we were able to use that speed to our advantage today," WLU head coach Lynn Ullom said. "When we shoot the ball as well as we did today, we can be a very good basketball team."

The Golden Eagles were able to keep things close in the early going as Kiara Johnson forged the game's only tie, 13-13, when she bulled her way to the hoop with just over 13 minutes showing on the first half clock.

West Liberty grabbed the ball out of the net and hustled it back upcourt with Howe finding Flowers for a 3-point bomb less than 10 seconds later, putting the hosts ahead to stay.

Hillary Southworth and Bri Kamarec followed with two more bonus bombs for a 22-13 lead as the clock ticked past the 10-minute mark but the Hilltoppers were just hitting their stride.

Johnson was able to trim the margin under double-figures one last time, 27-18, at the 7-minute mark but Jenn Mohney sandwiched two more 3-pointers around an Emily Bucon trey to make it 36-18 with 5 minutes left in the opening half.

West Liberty carried a 46-30 lead into the locker room at intermission and led by as many as 24 points in the second half.

Flowers and Howe didn't lack for offensive support as Bucon and Southworth also cracked double-figures with 12 points each for a West Liberty team that shot better than 50 percent from the floor (32-of-60, .533) and the 3-point arc (17-of-32, .531) on the day.

Johnson had a double-double for Charleston with 17 points and 10 rebounds while Nichole Perry and Monet Saunders added 16 and 14 points, respectively.

The Hilltoppers hit the road on Monday for a 5:30 p.m. game at West Virginia State.

GAME NOTES

X The Hilltoppers were ranked No. 1 and Charleston was No. 2 when the MEC coaches released their annual preseason poll earlier this month

X Howe's 14 assists are the most by a WLU woman since Jenni Robbins handed out 14 assists against Davis & Elkins on March 1, 2010

X Flowers' 8 3-pointers are the most by a Lady Hilltopper since Kayla Ayers' school-record 13 treys at West Virginia Wesleyan on Feb. 20, 2012

X West Liberty improved to 57-1 over the past 10 years when shooting 50 percent or better from the floor

X The Hilltoppers have made at least one 3-pointer in 620 consecutive games, a streak that dates back to the 1993-94 season