Women's Basketball | 12/19/2014 5:47:00 PM
Box Score SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – Liz Flowers scored her 1,000th career point with only the fifth 40-point game in West Liberty women's basketball history but it wasn't enough Friday afternoon as once-beaten Cedarville held off the injury-riddled Lady Hilltoppers, 87-78, at the Notre Dame (Ohio) Holiday Classic. Flowers, a 5-7 junior guard from Williamstown, W.Va., poured in 27 of her career-high 40 points in the second half as West Liberty (5-3) – playing without three injured regulars – battled the Yellow Jackets (10-1) to the wire before running out of gas.
The 40 points pushed Flowers' career total to 1,009 points, making her the 29th member of the Lady Hilltoppers' 1,000-Point Club.
An assortment of injuries found All-American Hillary Southworth, 3-year starter Bri Kamarec and key reserve Emily Bucon – averaging a combined 23.3 ppg. – riding the bench in street clothes as their teammates tried to cool off a Cedarville squad that rode a 7-game winning streak into the contest. West Liberty stayed close for most of the first half and went up, 28-27, on a Kailee Howe layup with 5:32 on the clock. The Hilltoppers didn't make another field goal for the rest of the half, however, and Cedarville closed on a 15-3 run to jog into the locker room with a 42-31 halftime lead.
The Yellow Jackets took their largest lead of the afternoon, 80-64, on a post move by Kayla Linkous with only4:25 to play but the Hilltoppers dug deep to mount one final surge.
West Liberty reeled off 10 unanswered points, capped by a Kiki Simpson layup off a feed from Howe to make it 80-74 with nearly 2 minutes remaining.
But it wasn't to be. Cedarville's Deborah Gordon hit a short jumper and, following a Hilltopper miss, Raegan Ryan dropped in a dagger of a 3-pointer to put the game out of reach, 85-74, with 1:02 to go.
The Hilltoppers shot just 38 percent (28-of-73) from the floor and 27 percent (8-of-29) from the 3-point arc. Along with 14 turnovers, that negated a 51-39 rebounding advantage. Howe backed Flowers with 14 points and 9 assists while Simpson finished with 10 points and a game-high 17 rebounds.
Cedarville shot better than 50 percent (36-of-71) from the floor, including a blistering 61 percent (19-of-31) in the second half. Ryan finished with 36 points while Gordon and Linkous added 15 and 12 points, respectively.
The West Liberty women return to the Murphy Gym Saturday afternoon to close out the tournament with a 2 p.m.game against Ursuline (Ohio).
