WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The No. 15 West Liberty University women's basketball team exploded for 64 second-half points Wednesday night and pulled away to an 89-69 win against West Virginia Wesleyan at the ASRC.

It was the 11th straight victory for Coach Lynn Ullom's Lady Hilltoppers (13-1, 8-0), who strengthened their hold on first place in the Mountain East Conference in a tale of two halves.

The upset-minded Bobcats (1-10, 0-8) held West Liberty scoreless for more than 6 ½ minutes at the start of the game while opening up a 9-0 lead.

The Hilltoppers struggled to dig themselves out of the hole for the rest of the first half and were still trailing, 28-25, when the halftime buzzer sounded.

"I thought we came out flat at the start of the game," Ullom said. "Wesleyan plays incredibly hard and they made it tough for us. We weren't able to get the quality shots we normally get in the first half so we had a hard time making shots."

It was a different story when the teams returned from the locker room as WLU – which had been held to 29 percent (10-of-34) shooting in the first half – hit its first six shots from the floor and never looked back.

The Hilltoppers broke the game open with a 36-point third quarter and wound up blistering the nets at a 74 percent (23-of-31) pace in the second half while sprinting off to the 20-point victory.

"We ran the lanes and passed the ball exceptionally well in the second half," Ullom said. "That got us some open looks and once we started getting easier shots, the floodgates opened."

Liz Flowers led all scorers with 28 points while grabbing 8 rebounds and handing out 6 assists. Kiki Simpson just missed a triple-double with 13 points, 11 rebounds and 8 blocked shots. Johnie Olkosky and Brandi Beader added 11 points each while Kailee Howe had a dozen assists to go along with 6 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals.

Mari Stewart and Allie Browne paced Wesleyan with 13 and 12 points, respectively.

West Liberty heads south on Saturday for a 2 p.m. game at UVA-Wise.