WEST LIBERTY, WV – The West Liberty University women’s basketball team celebrated Senior Night with a 73-64 revenge win against West Virginia Wesleyan Monday night at the ASRC.
The Hilltoppers (22-5, 17-4) clinched a top three seed in next week’s West Virginia Conference tournament by draining 10 3-pointers in the final 18 minutes to hold the Bobcats (16-8, 13-7) at bay.
It was the final regular-season home game for two of West Liberty’s all-time greats and the senior duo of Tori Hansen and Laura Malernee came up big once again.
Hansen, who set the school’s career scoring record on Saturday, became the leading rebounder in Hilltopper history Monday night while Malernee knocked down five 3-point field goals to pad her NCAA record total.
“I don’t know what I can say about those two girls that hasn’t already been said,” West Liberty coach Lynn Ullom told reporters. “We’ve won a bunch of games with them and the individual numbers they’ve put up over the years are just mind-boggling.
“The best thing about them, though, is that they’re both great students and good people who have done an outstanding job of carrying on the Hilltopper tradition of winning with quality basketball players who are quality people. We’re all going to miss them a ton next year but there’s still a lot of basketball left to be played this year.”
West Liberty never trailed after the midway point of the opening half and a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Hansen gave the hosts a 36-27 halftime lead.
The Bobcats battled back to forge ties at 45 and 48 before a Hansen free throw followed by a Jenni Robbins 3-pointer put the Hilltoppers ahead to stay, 52-48, with 11:14 remaining.
Robbins, a sophomore guard, hit 5-of-6 3-pointers in the second half to help West Liberty pull away down the stretch. She finished with a team-high 21 points.
Hansen and Malernee each added 15 points with Hansen pulling down 9 rebounds to fall one short of a double-double.
Wesleyan’s Jamie Kaufman had 24 points and 15 rebounds – both game-highs – while Lydia Bridenbaugh added 22 points in a losing cause.
“We were fortunate enough to shoot the ball well in the second half tonight,” Ullom said, “but we’re still not where we need to be defensively. Now we have a couple of days off to recharge our batteries and get ready for the stretch run.”
The Hilltoppers close out the regular season on Saturday with a 2 p.m. game at Davis & Elkins.
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