WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The No. 21-ranked West Liberty University women's basketball team jetted out to a 23-point second-half lead and held off a Mercyhurst rally before pulling away to a 78-64 victory in Saturday afternoon's MEC/PSAC Crossover tournament at the ASRC.

Coach Lynn Ullom's Lady Hilltoppers (1-0) will close out the tournament against defending national champion and No. 5-ranked California (Pa.) Sunday at 2 p.m. The Vulcans, who edged WLU by a 69-64 count in an NCAA Division II regional semifinal last season, rallied past upset-minded Notre Dame (Ohio), 76-67, in Saturday's tournament opener.

"There should be a lot of excitement in the building for that game tomorrow," Ullom said, "but it's not a revenge thing. It's just two programs that both pride themselves about being among the region's elite going at it. I'll be disappointed if the players, coaches and fans of both teams don't come in with some tournament intensity."

The West Liberty women never trailed in their season opener on Saturday, jumping out to a quick 7-0 lead and building a 41-23 advantage at halftime.

The Hilltoppers opened up their biggest lead of the day, 51-28, when Kiki Simpson finished off a pretty assist from Kailee Howe with 7:12 left in the third quarter but that's when Mercyhurst seemed to find its stride.

After being held to just 28 points through the first 23 minutes, the Lakers closed out the third quarter on an extended 26-9 run to pull within striking distance, 60-54, heading into the fourth quarter.

Making things even more troubling for West Liberty, preseason All-America guards Liz Flowers and Howe had each picked up their fourth fouls in the waning seconds of the frame and would open the final 10 minutes on the bench.

"It wasn't really a tale of two halves, since we don't play halves anymore," Ullom said, "but it was almost a tale of one bad quarter negating a lot of good work over three quarters. I thought we had defended pretty well in the first half but then we gave up 31 points in the third quarter."

With Flowers and Howe looking on from the sidelines, junior guard Janay Bottoms took up the torch.

Bottoms opened the fourth quarter by finding Simpson for back-to-back fast-break layups before feeding junior wing Emily Bucon for a wide-open 3-pointer.

Less than two minutes into the fourth quarter, the Hilltoppers had stretched the lead out to a much more comfortable 67-54 and were back on track for a season-opening win.

"What a lift Janay gave us coming off the bench like that when Kailee and Liz went to the bench," Ullom said. "I think she had 5 assists and only one turnover in the fourth quarter and really helped us settle things down."

Howe, who led the nation in assists a year ago, finished with 15 points and 12 assist while Flowers stuffed the stat sheet with 15 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. Simpson, who broke her own school rebounding record last season, also had 4 blocks to go along with a double-double of 10 points and 13 rebounds. Bucon added a dozen points and Johnie Olkosky added 11 points and 8 rebounds in her collegiate debut.

Adrienne Kloecker paced four double-figure scorers for Mercyhurst with 17 points.