Women's Basketball | 1/17/2018 8:45:00 PM

Box Score

    WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – Marissa Brown poured in a career-high 35 points and Audrey Tingle dished out a Mountain East Conference season-high 17 assists Wednesday night as the West Liberty women's basketball team outlasted Urbana, 110-106, in a double-overtime thriller at the ASRC.
    Coach Kyle Cooper's Lady Hilltoppers (7-10, 6-5) knocked down 14 3-pointers and shot better than 50 percent from the floor to avenge an early-season loss to the Blue Knights (9-6, 7-4) in a game that featured 6 ties and a staggering 15 lead changes in the fourth quarter and overtime.
    "The momentum swings in this game were absolutely crazy," Cooper said. "The way neither team folded and kept fighting back is a credit to the coaches and players from both teams. This was a very big win for us because we got so many contributions from so many people."
    Brown snapped a 101-101 tie with 1:44 to go in the second overtime with a conventional 3-point play off a fast break feed from McKenna Shives but Urbana's Weston Minnich answered at the other end with a 3-point rainbow, tying the game for the final time, 104-104, with 1:27 on the clock.
    Shives then buried a dagger of a 3-pointer off a feed from Tingle with 1:05 remaining to put the hosts ahead to stay, 107-104. After West Liberty came up with a pair of huge defensive stops, Johnie Olkosky and Tingle made 3-of-4 free throws in the final 10 seconds to put the game on ice.
    Brown finished with 15 rebounds and 6 blocks to go along with her 35 points while Olkosky had a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Brandi Beader had a big night with 20 points and 6 assists while Shives also dished out 6 assists while hitting double-figures with a dozen points. Tingle had 8 points and 6 rebounds to go along with her 17 assists.
    The 17 assists are the second-highest total by an NCAA Division II woman this season but the freshman point guard said she had plenty of help.
    "It's an amazing number but a lot of the credit has to go to my teammates," Tingle said. "I can pass them the ball but they still have to make the shots."
    West Liberty finished with a season-high 32 assists on 39 field goals.
    "That's probably what makes me the happiest," Cooper said. "We place a great deal of emphasis on sharing the basketball and trusting your teammates so when I see a number like that, it shows the growth and maturity we want to see from our program."
    Stefanie Davis led Urbana with 37 points and 16 rebounds while Sylvia Hudson added 26 points in a losing cause but Davis was held to just 1-of-4 shooting from the floor in the two overtime periods.
    "Davis is just a phenomenal player," Cooper said, "but we put Brandi on her at the end and it made a difference. Brandi's has been under the weather lately but she's probably our best lock-down defender with size. She really made Davis work for everything she got."
    The Lady Hilltoppers will be back in action on Saturday when they travel to Wheeling for a 2 p.m. game against Ohio County rival Wheeling Jesuit.