WEST LIBERTY \u2013 Laura Malernee became the leading 3-point\u00a0 shooter in NCAA Division II history Monday night as a short-handed West\u00a0 Liberty University women\u2019s basketball team ground out a 61-43 victory\u00a0 against visiting Davis & Elkins.<\/p>\n
Malernee, a 5-11 senior from Gahanna, Ohio, buried the 386th 3-point\u00a0 field goal of her career with 12:05 remaining in the second half. The\u00a0 bomb from the top of the key broke the previous NCAA Division II record\u00a0 of 385 career 3-pointers, set by Lorie Martinez of Texas\u00a0 A&M-Kingsville from 1999-2003.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen someone does something that\u2019s never been done before, that\u00a0 pretty much speaks for itself,\u201d Hilltopper head coach Lynn Ullom said.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a tremendous accomplishment for Laura and it reflects very well on\u00a0 our program and her teammates for setting the screens and making the\u00a0 passes which created the opportunities for Laura.\u201d<\/p>\n
With starting point guard Jenni Robbins in street clothes after\u00a0 being injured on Saturday, West Liberty (14-3, 9-2) had a hard time\u00a0 putting the pesky Senators (4-15, 2-11) away.<\/p>\n
The Hilltoppers got\u00a0 off to a good start and seemed to have things well in hand with a 29-14\u00a0 lead but failed to score over the final 5:04 of the opening half and\u00a0 led just 29-25 at intermission.<\/p>\n
Davis & Elkins cut the lead to two points on several occasions\u00a0 during a sloppy second half and trailed just 40-38 with 8:30 remaining\u00a0 before West Liberty finally found the range.<\/p>\n
The Senators had\u00a0 thrown a defensive blanket over Malernee on the perimeter but Kayla\u00a0 Ayers came off the bench to drain four 3-point field goals in the final 8\u00a0 minutes as the Hilltoppers closed the game on a 21-5 run.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we missed Jenni tonight,\u201d Ullom said. \u201cDavis &\u00a0 Elkins is very well-coached and did a good job on Laura. We have enough\u00a0 people who can score that it\u2019s just a matter of someone stepping up. We\u00a0 did struggle on the offensive end tonight but Kayla hit some big shots\u00a0 for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meghan Wiseman led West Liberty with 16 points while Ayers finished\u00a0 with 15 points \u2013 all on 3-pointers. Tori Hansen just missed a\u00a0 double-double with 14 points and 9 rebounds but moved into the No. 2\u00a0 spot on West Liberty\u2019s career rebounding list with 770 rebounds.<\/p>\n
Page Turner paced Davis & Elkins with 16 points while Julieanne Buckley added 10.<\/p>\n
The Hilltoppers, who remained atop the West Virginia Conference\u00a0 standings with the win, will be back in action Thursday night when they\u00a0 host Bluefield State. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. at the ASRC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WEST LIBERTY \u2013 Laura Malernee became the leading 3-point\u00a0 shooter in NCAA Division II history Monday night as a short-handed West\u00a0 Liberty University women\u2019s basketball team ground out a 61-43 victory\u00a0 against visiting Davis & Elkins. Malernee, a 5-11 senior from Gahanna, Ohio, buried the 386th 3-point\u00a0 field goal of her career with 12:05 remaining […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college"],"yoast_head":"\n