Women's Basketball | 1/16/2017 7:31:00 PM

Box Score WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – Marissa Brown poured in a career-high 30 points and the West Liberty University women held off a late Concord surge for an 88-76 victory at the ASRC on Monday.
Coach Lynn Ullom's Hilltoppers (5-11, 4-6) never trailed and led by as many as 17 points in the second half only to see the Mountain Lions (2-12, 1-9) make things a bit interesting down the stretch.
Concord scored 9 of the last 10 points in the third quarter to trim the margin to 59-54 heading into the final 10 minutes.
The teams traded baskets for the first couple of possessions in the fourth quarter with Heather Chapman's spinning 10-footer pulling the visitors within five points once again, 63-58, as the clock ticked under the 7-minute mark.
It appeared that Concord might have a chance to cut even deeper into the lead when a Johnie Olkosky 3-point try spun around and out at the other end.
That was before freshman guard Grace Fodor grabbed the rebound and whipped the ball back out to Olkosky, who hit nothing but net on her second-chance 3-pointer.
Alexis Lowery knocked down a pair of free throws for Concord but McKenna Shives answered with a quick 3-pointer for WLU and the Mountain Lions never threatened again.
"I thought Grace pulling that offensive rebound and getting it out to Johnie for another 'three' was the biggest play of the game," Ullom said. "Grace made some nice hustle plays tonight and that really helped us get a little separation."
Brown, the Hilltoppers' 6-3 sophomore transfer from Youngstown State, was a dominant force throughout against the smaller Mountain Lion frontline. She knocked down 12-of-16 shots from the floor and was 6-of-8 from the charity stripe, including a pair of conventional 3-point plays, while also clearing a career-high 10 rebounds.
"We realized early on that we had a pretty good mismatch with Marissa inside," Ullom said, "so we focused a lot of our gameplan on getting the ball to her on the blocks for some high-percentage shots."
Olkosky had a game-high five 3-pointers and backed Brown with 17 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. Kelly Meade added a career-high 10 points off the bench and Shives finished with 9 points and a game-high 6 assists.
Lowery had 24 points to lead Concord, which also got 12 and 10 points, respectively, from Emily Boothe and Lindsey Overbey.
West Liberty will be back at home on Thursday for a 5:30 p.m. game against Ohio County rival Wheeling Jesuit.