Women's Basketball | 1/3/2017 8:28:00 PM

Box Score INSTITUTE, W.Va. – The West Liberty University women were blanked for nearly 6 minutes at the start of the second half Tuesday night and never recovered as West Virginia State pulled away to a 90-64 win in Mountain East Conference women's basketball action at the Walker Center.
It was a tale of two halves for Coach Lynn Ullom's Hilltoppers (2-9, 1-4), who led for nearly the entire first half after McKenna Shives opened the game with back-to-back 3-pointers.
West Liberty led by as many as 9 points on multiple occasions and never trailed until the Yellowjackets (6-5, 4-1) snapped a 40-40 tie with a Tatyana Reynolds free throw with just 5 seconds left in the opening half for a 41-40 lead at the break.
The second half was all West Virginia State as the hosts scored the first 14 points of the third quarter to push the margin to 55-40 before WLU's Monica Bragg finally broke the scoring ice with a fast-break layup at the 4:20 mark.
That proved to be too little, too late as the visitors were unable to get the deficit under double figures the rest of the way.
Brandi Beader came off the bench to lead three double-figure scorers for West Liberty with 15 points. Shives finished with 11 points and a game-high 8 assists while Marissa Brown weighed in with 10 points. Johnie Olkosky added 8 points and a team-high 9 rebounds in a losing cause.
Shae Hines led all scorers for the Yellowjackets with 27 points while Shealyn Shafer muscled in 14 points and grabbed a game-high 18 rebounds. Sydney Bates rounded out the double-figure scorers with 15 points.
The Lady Hilltoppers return home to host Charleston on Thursday. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. at the ASRC.