Women's Basketball | 2/3/2018 3:28:00 PM

Box Score

    WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – Junior post Marissa Brown poured in a career-high 37 points and freshman point guard Audrey Tingle dished out 15 assists here Saturday as the West Liberty women raced past Concord, 100-89, for their fourth straight win.
    Coach Kyle Cooper's Hilltoppers (11-11, 10-6) used a 15-0 spurt to break up a close game midway through the contest and never trailed in the second half in avenging an earlier loss to the Mountain Lions (11-10, 7-9).
    "I'm so proud to see these girls give themselves the opportunity to enjoy this moment," Cooper said. "because we were not in a very good place earlier this year.
    "Coming off a 20-loss season and starting out 4-9 against a very tough non-conference schedule, it would have been easy to just pack it in but this group chose to dig in and fight. That's a credit to their character."
    A strong finish to the second quarter sent WLU into the locker room with a 46-41 lead and the Black and Gold picked up right where they had left off when play resumed.
    After Brandi Beader opened the second half with a drive to the bucket, McKenna Shives swiped the inbounds pass and laid it in before draining a 3-point bomb to give the hosts their first double-digit lead of the day, 53-41.
    Concord was able to whittle the lead down to 72-66 heading into the final 10 minutes but West Liberty scored 11 of the first 13 points in the fourth quarter – capped by a 3-point play from the 6-3 Brown after beating everyone down the floor on a fast break – to put the game on ice, 85-70, with 8 minutes remaining.
    "Marissa just dominated out there today," Cooper said. "She gives us such a presence in the paint and is so hard to stop down there, especially with Audrey doing such a good job of getting the ball to her in scoring position."
    Cooper said Tingle, who tied an MEC record earlier this year with 17 assists and ranks among the top 10 nationally, continued to show maturity beyond her years.
    "I thought Audrey played with the poise of a veteran again," Cooper said. "Obviously, 15 assists is an incredible number but to have only one turnover in 34 minutes with the ball in your hands the majority of the time against a really athletic team like that is pretty special."
    Brown finished with 37 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks while Tingle checked off a lot of boxes with 8 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals to go along with her 15 assists.
    There were several more highlight performances from the Black and Gold. Beader tossed in 15 of her 23 points after halftime and also donated 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 blocks and a steal to the cause. Shives added 13 points and Johnie Olkosky grabbed 10 rebounds to go along with 6 points, 3 assists and 3 blocks.
    Linday Overbey came off the bench with 28 points to pace five double-figure scorers for Concord.
    The Hilltoppers remain at home to host West Virginia State Thursday at 5:30 p.m.