WHEELING, W.Va. – Morgan Brunner rained in a career-high 32 points and the West Liberty women never trailed in the second half here Thursday night in an 84-77 victory against Notre Dame in a Mountain East Conference Tournament quarterfinal at WesBanco Arena.
    Coach Kyle Cooper's No. 4-seeded Hilltoppers (21-8) will face top-seeded and No. 18-ranked Glenville State (27-2) at noon on Saturday in the first of two tournament semifinals. No. 2 seed Charleston (24-5) and No. 3 seed Concord (23-6) will play in the other semifinal at 2:15 p.m.
    Friday's win was a tale of two halves for the Black and Gold. Momentum swung back and forth for much of the first two quarters with 5 ties and 13 lead changes before West Liberty tightened the defensive screws midway through the second period.
    A driving layup by the Falcons' (15-14) Jada Marone forged what proved to be the game's final tie, 34-34, with 4:50 left in the first half but WLU held Notre Dame scoreless the rest of the way to take a 42-34 lead into the locker room.
    "That was a pretty important sequence," Cooper said. "We were able to string together some stops against a really talented offensive team and create a little separation. Even in the second half when Notre Dame made their runs, it seemed like whenever we really needed a big stop, we got a big stop.
    "That really speaks well to the team we've become and I'm so proud of this group of young women."
    Brunner, who had closed out the first half with a 3-pointer, added a couple more bonus bombs in the third frame as West Liberty's lead stretched as high as a dozen points.
    The Hilltoppers spent the fourth quarter fending off a series of Falcon surges and Notre Dame eventually pulled within a basket, 73-71, after Seina Adachi drained a 3-pointer off a steal with 1:50 left to play.
    That was as close as the Falcons could come, however, as West Liberty closed out the win at the charity stripe with Brunner going 6-for-6 from the line in the final 26 seconds.
    Along with her career-high 32 points, Brunner tied an MEC Tournament record with 8 3-point field goals and scored 18 of her 32 points after intermission.
    "What a huge performance from Morgan tonight," Cooper said. "Not only did she hit a lot of shots, she hit a lot of big shots. Morgan knocked down a couple of daggers in the fourth quarter when we really needed them."
    Senior post Marissa Brown charted her 19^th double-double of the season and 40^th of her career with 19 points and 12 rebounds. She also became the first Lady Hilltopper to pass the 300 field goal milestone in a single season. Taylor Johnson added 11 points and 6 rebounds while Audrey Tingle stuffed the stat sheet with 8 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals.
    Adachi paced  Notre Dame with 29 points while Marone added 19 off the bench.
    "We're going to enjoy this win tonight," Cooper said, "but it's safe to say that this team wanted another shot at Glenville. They are unbelievably good and Coach Kim Stephens has done an incredible job with them but we proved down there that we can compete with them.
    "We will definitely have a little extra bounce in our step when we come back here on Saturday."