Women's Basketball | 2/1/2018 8:10:00 PM

Box Score

    WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University women's basketball team broke up a close game with a big fourth quarter and ran away to a 73-59 victory against UVa-Wise Thursday night at the ASRC.
    It was the third straight win for Coach Kyle Cooper's Lady Hilltoppers (10-11, 9-6), who have climbed the ladder into a tie for third place in the Mountain East Conference standings, but the Cavaliers (3-17, 2-13) didn't make it easy on them.
    West Liberty seemed on the verge of taking control when the Black and Gold opened up a 49-40 lead at the 4:10 mark of the third quarter but UVa-Wise closed out the stanza on a 10-0 spurt to take a 50-49 lead into the final 10 minutes.
    "We did come out a little flat tonight but give Wise credit. They came at us hard," Cooper said. "We were challenged to lock up and defend without fouling and you can tell by the numbers we did a much better job with that in the fourth quarter."
    The Hilltoppers held UVa-Wise to just 4-of-20 shooting from the floor the rest of the way and the multitude of defensive stops led to several transition opportunities.
    Johnie Olkosky put the hosts ahead to stay, 58-55, with a 3-point bomb at 6:10 of the fourth quarter and that seemed to open the floodgates.
    Grace Fodor cashed in another fast break off a great touch pass from Monica Bragg and when freshman point guard Audrey Tingle found a wide-open McKenna Shives for another bonus bomb in transition, West Liberty was on its way.
    "The great thing about our style of play is that our defense ignites our offensive runs," Shives said. "With Johnie, Brandi (Beader) and Marissa (Brown) hitting big shots, Audrey pulling rebounds and making great passes and the energy we get from the bench, this was a really good team win."
    Brown, who leads the region in scoring and ranks among the nation's Top 10 in several offensive categories, missed nearly the entire third quarter with foul trouble but still finished with 18 points and 16 rebounds in just 22 minutes of play.
    Beader had a huge night with a game-high 21 points and 6 assists while Shives added 15 markers, 10 of them coming in the first quarter. Tingle, who leads all NCAA Division II freshmen in assists, had 10 rebounds to go along with a game-high 7 assists.
    Ada Stanley and Cynita Webb paced the Cavaliers with 13 points each.
    "I'm really happy to see these girls start to string some wins together," Cooper said. "They're a group that's dealt with some adversity the past couple of seasons but they've given themselves an opportunity to get back to .500 if they can get a win on Saturday. They've worked really hard to put themselves in that position and I really want that for them."
    The Lady Hilltoppers host Concord on Saturday. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. at the ASRC.