WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – Sydney Nestor's driving layup with just three seconds to play gave Davis & Elkins a 71-69 victory over West Liberty here Wednesday in a Mountain East Conference women's basketball thriller at the ASRC.
    Coach Kyle Cooper's Hilltoppers (7-12, 3-10) had a chance to force overtime but Taylor Johnson's potential game-tying shot rolled around and off the iron at the buzzer and the Senators (6-13, 5-8) had their fourth straight win.
    "We got the look we wanted at the end," said Cooper, who had called back-to-back timeouts following Nestor's go-ahead score to set up WLU's final possession. "We executed the set perfectly. The gap was there, the seal was there and Taylor did a great job getting to the rim. The ball just wouldn't go down."
    It was a frustrating conclusion to a tightly-played contest featuring 7 ties and 8 lead changes.
    After trailing by as many as 9 points in the early going, West Liberty took its largest lead of the night, 58-50, into the fourth quarter.
    The Hilltoppers fended off a series of surges from D&E to retain the upper hand but a late cold spell – missing 5 of their last 6 shots – left the door open.
    "The frustrating thing about tonight is that we did a lot of things well," Cooper said. "We forced 16 turnovers; we got a great lift from multiple players off the bench and we made several big defensive stops at crucial times. That fourth quarter drought provided the opening for them to come back."
    A Jamiyah Johnson free throw capped a 7-0 D&E surge that put the visitors up, 69-66, with just 1:14 to play but West Liberty wasn't finished.
    Taylor Johnson wormed her way down the lane for a layup to make it a one-point games, 69-68, with less than a minute to play.
    After forcing a Senators miss on the ensuing possession, Taylor Johnson went 1-for-2 from the line to knot the score, 69-69, with 16 seconds left only to see D&E pull out the win.
    Taylor Johnson led the Hilltoppers with 20 points while senior guard Grace Fodor added a dozen points off the bench and freshman wing Grace Faulk knocked down a trio of 3-pointers to finish with 9 points. Leading scorer Morgan Brunner battled foul problems all night and finished with 5 points in just 15 minutes of court time.
    "It was a tough night for Morgan," Cooper said. "She had a couple of defensive calls not go her way when she was trying to make a play and Davis & Elkins was very physical with her whenever she was on the court.
    "I thought Grace Fodor had one of her best games for us and Grace Faulk was just phenomenal tonight. That's a testament to a young woman just putting her head down and working hard every day."
    Jamiyah Johnson, the nation's leading rebounder, padded her stats on Wednesday with 21 points and 20 rebounds – both game-highs – to pace the visitors. Peyton Mohler and Nestor added 13 and 11 points, respectively.
    The West Liberty women will try to get back on track Saturday when they head to Buckhannon for a 2 p.m. tipoff at West Virginia Wesleyan.