WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University women's basketball team kept its Mountain East Conference championship hopes alive Monday night with a 93-86 victory against Glenville State on Senior Night at the ASRC.

Coach Lynn Ullom's Hilltoppers (19-8, 16-5) went ahead to stay with 5 minutes left in the opening half and led by as many as 11 points in the second half to avenge a 70-67 loss to the Pioneers (13-12, 11-10) last month in Glenville.

"This wasn't the prettiest win we've had this season," Ullom said, "but I'll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day. I think this clinches a first-round bye in the (MEC) tournament and we still have a shot at the championship if we get a little help.

"When you start the season, your goal is to put yourself in position to win the championship at the end of the year and we're still in the hunt."

West Liberty drained 10 3-pointers in the first half to take a 48-41 lead at the break.

Glenville threatened several times in the early part of the second half but back-to-back 3-pointers from Jasmin Kiley gave the Hilltoppers their first double-digit lead, 62-52, with 14:03 to play. The Pioneers never got closer than 5 points the rest of the night.

West Liberty made only 2 3-pointers in the final 20 minutes but more than made up for the lack of perimeter production by going 23-of-31 from the charity stripe in the second half – after not shooting a single free throw in the first half.

"We've done a pretty good job closing out games over the last month or so," Ullom said. "We made a few more mental mistakes tonight but fortunately we hit enough free throws to preserve the win."

A balanced attack paid dividends for the Black and Gold, who finished with six double-figure scorers and had two players post double-doubles.

Hillary Southworth set the pace with 18 points and Emily Bucon added a season-high 16.

Kailee Howe scored 15 points and handed out 14 assists while Liz Flowers finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Jenn Mohney and Kiley tallied 11 and 10 points, respectively, while Kiki Simpson just missed a double-double with 9 points and a game-high 15 rebounds.

Keyanna Tate led Glenville State with 31 points and 12 rebounds while Katrina Salinas added 15 points in a losing cause.

West Liberty closes out the regular season on the road Saturday with a 2 p.m. game at Wheeling Jesuit.

GAME NOTES

X Southworth, Mohney and Bri Kamarec were honored in Senior Night ceremonies prior to the game

X Simpson moved into sixth place on West Liberty's career rebounding list with 701 rebounds

X The Hilltoppers improved to 120-29 in February games over the past 15 seasons

X West Liberty will be trying to clinch its 9th 20-win season in the past 10 years Saturday afternoon at Wheeling Jesuit