Women's Basketball | 11/15/2016 8:22:00 PM

Box Score WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – Junior guard McKenna Shives poured in a career-high 31 points Tuesday night but it wasn't enough as unbeaten Ohio Dominican handed the West Liberty University women's basketball team an 84-67 loss at the ASRC.
In a game of runs, Coach Lynn Ullom's youthful Hilltoppers (0-3) ultimately ran out of time against the tall and talented Panthers (3-0), who returned nearly everyone from last year's 20-win team.
An early 21-2 burst put Ohio Dominican up, 21-7, with 4:34 still remaining in the opening quarter but West Liberty responded and trailed just 25-21 at the quarter break after Shives closed out the frame with back-to-back bonus bombs.
The Panthers, who held their first two opponents to just 22 percent shooting from the field, turned up the defensive heat in the second quarter and put the Hilltoppers in a 50-31 hole at intermission.
Consecutive 3-pointers from Shives and Johnie Olkosky along with a pair of free throws from Marissa Brown helped WLU cut the gap to 52-39 in the early part of the third quarter but that was as close as the hosts would come.
A 3-pointer by ODU's Alexis Overly pushed the lead to 63-42 with 5:13 still showing on the third quarter clock. Monica Bragg tried to stop the bleeding with a 3-pointer as the clock ticked under 5 minutes but the Panthers reeled off 13 straight points to take their largest lead of the night, 76-45 in the final minute of the quarter and the game was gone.
"I liked our effort at times tonight," Ullom said, "but it just wasn't consistent enough when you're going up against a team that probably has a shot at making a pretty deep run in the NCAA Tournament. They're long, deep and athletic. They run their stuff very well and they play really hard."
Shives, a junior transfer from Gannon, rained in 9 3-pointers to account for the bulk of her 31 points but also went 4-for-4 from the foul line while picking up 4 steals and 3 rebounds.
While Shives was West Liberty's only double-figure scorer, scrappy freshman guard Grace Fodor had 7 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and a pair of steals in 37 minutes of action while fellow freshman Kelly Meade provided some instant offense off the bench with 8 points in 8 minutes.
"With so many new kids, we're still in the process of defining roles and trying to settle on a rotation," Ullom said. "We need to figure out what combination we can put out on the floor that will help us win games in conference play."
Madi Rittenger's 17 points led the way for Ohio Dominican, which muscled out a whopping 59-31 advantage off the glass. Lauren Bates and Sarah Futscher backed Rittenger with 14 and 10 points, respectively.
"It's always a difficult transition from high school to college," Ullom said, "but in our girls' defense, I doubt if any Division II team in the country has opened against three teams of the caliber we've played. We just have to push this to the back of the memory bank and keep working on getting better."
The Lady Hilltoppers open Mountain East Conference play at home this weekend when they host Notre Dame (Ohio) Saturday at 2 p.m.