WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – A cold-shooting first half and a short-handed roster were too much for the West Liberty University women's basketball team to overcome Wednesday afternoon as unbeaten and No. 6-ranked Adelphi (N.Y.) led wire-to-wire en route to a 78-57 victory at the ASRC.

Once again playing without injured senior starters Hillary Southworth and Bri Kamarec along with key sophomore reserve Emily Bucon, Coach Lynn Ullom's Lady Hilltoppers (6-4) struggled to keep up with the taller, deeper Panthers (12-0).

"I was very impressed by Adelphi," Ullom said. "They're extremely tall and athletic but their effort across the board is what stands out. It's just exceptional. They're designed to torture teams who aren't prepared to match their intensity and that's exactly what happened in the first half today."

Adelphi broke the game open early, using a 14-0 run over a 5-minute span to open up a 23-7 lead with just under 11 minutes remaining in the first half. The Panthers' length limited West Liberty's inside game and with the Hilltoppers unable to find the range from the perimeter, the visitors never looked back.

The New York school pushed the lead to 30 points, 45-15, on a Calli Balfour post move as the clock ticked past 3 minutes and glided into the locker room with an insurmountable 51-19 lead. The Black and Gold shot just 21 percent (8-for-37) from the floor and committed 11 turnovers in the first 20 minutes.

"Obviously, this was the wrong team to play with the girls we have out," Ullom said, "but my only regret is that I don't think we competed today. We picked things up a little bit in the second half and started to make some plays but we didn't handle adversity very well at the start."

Adelphi pushed the lead out to 35 points, 58-23, on a driving layup by Kelly Mannix with just under 16 minutes remaining before the Hilltoppers began to battle back.

With Kiki Simpson scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in the second half alone, West Liberty was able to trim the deficit under 20 points on several occasions down the stretch but it was too little, too late.

Simpson led WLU with 14 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocked shots while Liz Flowers and Jenn Mohney each checked in with 13 points.

Mannix had 15 points and 11 rebounds to pace the Panthers while Sierra Clark came off the bench with 13 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Anh-Dao Tran and Samantha Brenner rounded out the double-figure scorers with 13 and 11 points, respectively.

The Hilltoppers return to Mountain East Conference action on Saturday with a 2 p.m. game at Concord.