Women's Basketball | 11/21/2016 8:27:00 PM

Box Score WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University women's basketball team jumped out to a 10-point midway through the first quarter and never took their foot off the gas the rest of the night in racing away to a 100-49 rout of Urbana in Mountain East Conference action at the ASRC.
"We didn't just get the monkey off our back tonight," Coach Lynn Ullom said after seeing his Hilltoppers (1-4, 1-1) snap their season-opening four-game losing streak, "this took care of a barrel full of monkeys. I thought we came out playing with incredible energy in the first half and just continued to build on that the rest of the night."
A McKenna Shives 3-pointer gave West Liberty the lead for good, 5-2, in the game's opening minute and the Black and Gold were off to the races.
A trio of 3-pointers from Johnie Olkosky fueled a 16-4 run that gave WLU an 18-8 lead heading into the second quarter but the Hilltoppers were far from finished.
Kelly Meade followed a conventional 3-point play with a pair of free throws to cap a 12-0 surge midway through the second quarter. That pushed the margin to 38-16 with 4 minutes left in the half and West Liberty settled for a 45-21 advantage at the break.
"We were going after loose balls and crashing the boards much better than we had in any of our four previous games," Ullom said. "We also passed the ball exceptionally well tonight which created some excellent scoring opportunities."
Any comeback hopes the Blue Knights (2-2, 0-2) may have been harboring were effectively squelched in the third quarter. Urbana scored 10 of the first 13 points in the second half to trim the margin to 48-31 but that's when the Hilltoppers stepped it up at both ends of the court.
West Liberty held the visitors scoreless for the final 8 minutes of the third quarter while reeling off 25 unanswered points, putting the game well out of reach, 73-31, by the end of the stanza. Ullom cleared his bench down the stretch but the Hilltoppers continued to pull away until the final horn.
Olkosky led the way with 17 points while true freshman Monica Bragg came off the bench with 16 points, 6 rebounds, 3 blocks, 3 assists and a pair of steals. Not to be outdone, sophomore Brandi Beader delivered the first double-double of her career with 13 points and 11 rebounds while Shives added a dozen points on 4-of-9 shooting from the 3-point arc.
Mikayla Ward had 10 points and 16 rebounds for Urbana while Danie Shafer chipped in with 12 points.
"The great thing about tonight is that we had so many people contributing and even had a couple of breakout games," Ullom said. "Monica was just everywhere and Brandi really competed hard but good things happen when you play with energy and attention to detail.
"After a tough start to the season, it definitely felt good to have things go our way tonight. Hopefully, this can jump start us a little bit."