Women's Basketball | 3/8/2014 3:17:00 PM
Box Score CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Liberty University women's basketball team suffered through one of its worst shooting games in years Saturday afternoon and Charleston took full advantage in rolling to a 76-49 win in an MEC Tournament semifinal at the Civic Center Coliseum.
Coach Lynn Ullom's Hilltoppers (20-10) – who rank No. 6 nationally with an average of nearly 9 3-point field goals per game – missed 11 straight shots during one first-half stretch and finished just 2-of-23 from behind the arc.
West Liberty had swept the season series from the Golden Eagles (21-7) but UC closed out the first half with a 20-2 run over the final 6 minutes to take a 44-17 lead into the locker room and the Hilltoppers couldn't recover.
"It's very disappointing," Ullom said. "Our energy and concentration level was very poor in the first half and Charleston played incredible. I thought our effort in the first 10 minutes of the second half was as good as it has been all season but the hole we dug for ourselves was just too deep."
West Liberty outscored UC, 16-5, over the first 9 minutes of the second half to pull within 16 points at 49-33 on a Liz Flowers drive with 11:28 still remaining but that's where the comeback ran out of gas.
The Hilltoppers committed three turnovers and missed four shots on their next four possessions, allowing the Golden Eagles to put the game on ice with 10 unanswered points for a 59-33 bulge with 7:17 to play.
West Liberty finished the afternoon shooting just 30 percent (16-of-53) from the floor to go along with the 8 percent (2-for-23) showing from the 3-point line. The Hilltoppers had just 5 assists to go along with 16 turnovers and were out-rebounded by a 39-29 margin.
Charleston shot better than 50 percent (26-of-51) from the floor and made nearly 80 percent (7-for-9) of its 3-point attempts.
Flowers made the Hilltoppers' only two 3-point field goals and was the team's lone double-figure scorer with 20 points. Kiki Simpson had a game-high 12 rebounds before fouling out after spending nearly the entire game battling foul trouble.
Chyress Lockhart paced UC with 20 points while Kelly Cuttaia and Kiara Johnson added 12 and 10 points, respectively.
West Liberty, No. 7 in the latest set of NCAA Division II Atlantic Region rankings, will learn Sundaywhether it has earned one of the eight spots in next week's regional tournament.
"Based on our body of work throughout the season, I think we're an NCAA team," Ullom said. "We won 20 games, finished second in a very good Mountain East Conference and we have several wins against regionally-ranked teams. We'll definitely be watching the webcast tomorrow night."
GAME NOTES
X The NCAA Division II women's regional pairings will be announced Sunday at 10 p.m. on a live webcast at www.NCAA.com
X The Hilltoppers' worst 3-point showing of the season came less than 48 hours after hitting a season-high 14 3-pointers on the same floor in an 82-57 quarterfinal rout of UVA-Wise
X Despite Saturday's loss, West Liberty has won 12 of its last 14 games
X This was only the sixth loss for Ullom in 18 conference tournament semifinal games
X The Hilltoppers are 14-0 this season when holding their opponent below 75 points but just 6-10 when allowing 75 or more
X West Liberty is 20-1 when outshooting its opponent from the floor but WLU is winless (0-9) when teams shoot a higher percentage
