WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The No. 16-ranked West Liberty University women jetted out to a 20-point first-quarter lead Sunday afternoon on their way to a 105-79 rout of Glenville State in Mountain East Conference action at the ASRC.
Freshman Johnie Olkosky poured in a career-high 22 points, Kailee Howe tied her own MEC record with 17 assists and a trio of Lady Hilltoppers (12-1, 7-0) posted double-doubles as West Liberty handed the Pioneers (9-4, 5-2) their most lopsided loss of the season. "It's nice to score 100," WLU head coach Lynn Ullom said, "but I'm more pleased with holding a team like that under 80 points. We didn't defend all that well in the first half. They just missed some pretty makeable shots. We addressed that at halftime and did a much better job the rest of the way." Glenville came into the game leading the nation in scoring, 3-point field goals and rebounds but the Pioneers couldn't find the range early on and the Hilltoppers took full advantage.
West Liberty opened the game on an 11-2 run before Tayana Stewart went coast-to-coast for Glenville to make it 11-4 with a little more than 6 minutes left in the opening quarter.
That's when the Hilltoppers took control with a 13-0 run. Olkosky drained a pair of 3-pointers during the surge which ended on a Liz Flowers layup, pushing the count to 24-4 with 3:49 still showing on the first quarter clock. After making just 4-of-26 shots from the floor in the opening stanza, the Pioneers began chipping away at the lead when play resumed and got the margin under double-figures, 46-37, at intermission.
A Skyy Lewis layup and a 3-pointer from Stewart cut the lead to 46-42 at the start of the second half but that's where WLU slammed the door.
Flowers answered with a 3-pointer of her own, Howe followed with a pretty spin move and Kiki Simpson finished off a hustling assist from Emily Bucon to spark an 18-3 Hilltopper run that all but put the game out of reach. West Liberty took a 77-60 lead into the fourth quarter and was never challenged again.
Simpson made a run at a triple-double with 15 points, 13 rebounds and 7 blocks while Flowers wasn't far off with 21 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists. Howe notched a double-double with 16 points to go with her 17 assists while Olkosky just missed a double-double with 8 rebounds along with her 22 points.
"Johnie was huge today," Ullom said. "It's not just the points. She made a lot of plays all over the court. Glenville's a very good team and I thought our three seniors really rose to the challenge. Liz and Kiki had strong games and I have to give Kailee a lot of credit. You never get a break against Glenville when you're playing the point and she was really consistent with her effort today."
Brittany Jackson's 14 points paced four double-figure scorers for the Pioneers, who were held to 31 percent (31-of-100) shooting from the floor, including a dismal 18 percent (6-of-32) from behind the 3-point arc.
The Hilltoppers return to action Tuesday night when they host West Virginia Wesleyan in a 5:30 p.m. game at the ASRC.
