CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The No. 16-ranked West Liberty University women opened the game on an 11-0 run and never looked back Wednesday night in rolling to a 48-37 win against Charleston at the Charleston Civic Center Coliseum.

It was the ninth straight win for Coach Lynn Ullom's Lady Hilltoppers (11-1, 6-0), who strengthened their hold on first place in the Mountain East Conference in convincing fashion.

Kiki Simpson put West Liberty ahead to stay with a move to the hoop one minute into the game and Johnie Olkosky followed with a 3-pointer for a 5-0 Hilltopper lead.

Kailee Howe came up with a steal and fed Liz Flowers for a transition trey to force an early timeout by the Golden Eagles (4-8, 2-4) but Flowers drained another 3-pointer for an 11-0 lead as the first quarter clock ticked under 6 minutes.

In an attempt to shorten the game, Charleston ran the shot clock down into single digits on nearly every possession but couldn't develop any consistency against a solid WLU defensive effort.

The Golden Eagles' Chyress Lockhart beat the halftime buzzer with a 3-pointer to trim West Liberty's lead to 25-19 at the break but UC never got any closer.

The Hilltoppers closed the third quarter on a 7-1 run before Howe gave the visitors their largest lead of the night, 42-26, on a drive to the basket at the start of the fourth quarter. West Liberty maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way.

Despite UC's slowdown tactics, Howe turned in an impressive performance. The nation's assist leader finished with 22 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists – all game-highs. Flowers added 13 points and 7 boards before fouling out midway through the fourth quarter and Olkosky chipped in with 9 points on three 3-pointers.

Lockhart was Charleston's only double-digit scorer with 17 points as the Golden Eagles shot just 24 percent (13-of-53) from the floor and coughed up 17 turnovers.

The West Liberty women return home to host Glenville State on Sunday in a 2 p.m. game at the ASRC.