WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The No. 16-ranked West Liberty University women's basketball team celebrated Senior Night on Thursday by clinching their second straight Mountain East Conference title with a 94-68 rout of Urbana.

It was the seventh straight win for Coach Lynn Ullom's Lady Hilltoppers (24-3, 19-2) and, coupled with Wheeling Jesuit's 74-62 loss at Notre Dame on Thursday, guaranteed West Liberty at least a share of the MEC championship heading into Saturday's season finale against the Cardinals.

The WLU seniors – Liz Flowers, Kailee Howe, Jasmin Kiley and Kiki Simpson – certainly rose to the occasion after being honored during pre-game ceremonies. West Liberty was in complete control from the opening tap and the talented foursome finished the night with a combined 72 points, 26 rebounds, 15 assists, 8 steals and 6 blocked shots.

"You couldn't ask for a better Senior Night," Ullom said. "All four of our seniors had quality outings and contributed to a quality win while clinching a share of the MEC championship for the second straight year.

"These young ladies have won an awful lot of basketball games, set a lot of records and won multiple championships over the past four years. They're a really special group and I couldn't be prouder of them."

The game itself was almost an anticlimax. West Liberty held the Blue Knights (11-14, 10-11) without a field goal for the first seven minutes while jetting out to a 20-3 lead.

Urbana did close to within six points briefly during the second quarter but the Hilltoppers pulled back out to a 49-34 halftime lead and pushed the margin as high as 29 points in the second half.

Flowers led all scorers with 32 points while Howe had a double-double with 21 points and 11 assists and Simpson also posted a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds. Kiley, who has battled injuries all season, came off the bench to add 8 points, 4 rebounds and a pair of steals.

Junior Emily Bucon added a dozen points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists for the hosts.

Kennedy Boggs had 22 points for Urbana while Tori Purk added a dozen tallies in a losing cause.

The Lady Hilltoppers close out the regular season at home on Saturday with a 2 p.m. game against Wheeling Jesuit, now one game behind West Liberty in the Mountain East Conference standings.

"I'm really proud of our girls for clinching a share of the MEC title for the second straight year," Ullom said, "but given the type of competitors they are, I think we'd all be tremendously disappointed if we didn't come back out here Saturday and win this thing outright."

Both ends of Saturday's West Liberty/Wheeling Jesuit doubleheader will be televised live nationwide on the American Sports Network.

The games can be seen locally on ME-TV (Comcast Channel 208) with livestreams also available at WLU's athletic website – www.hilltoppersports.com – and the main NCAA website –www.ncaa.com.

ROOT Sports Pittsburgh will air tape-delay telecasts of the games Sunday at 2 and 4 p.m.

GAME NOTES

X The Lady Hilltoppers improved to 128-29 in February games over the past 16 seasons – including a perfect 7-0 mark this year

X Flowers is now third on West Liberty's career scoring list with 1,962 points

X Simpson is only 8 blocked shots away from tying Jaana Kotova's school record of 251 career blocked shots