WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – West Virginia State's women's basketball team took down the West Liberty Hilltoppers on the road, 80-76. State (7-2, 5-2 MEC) forced nine turnovers in the third quarter and outscored the Hilltoppers (5-4, 5-2 MEC) 29-17 in the quarter.

Anysa Jordan recorded her second consecutive double-double scoring 20 points and collected 13 boards, seven on the offensive end. Hannah Shriver and ZZ Russell both contributed 13 points. The Jackets forced 19 of the Hilltopper's 29 turnovers, leading to 20 points for the Yellow Jackets. 

Karly McCutcheon scored 21 points for the Hilltoppers. Arriana Manzay scored 20, and Natalija Sekulovska added 12.

West Liberty scored the first four points of the contest. WVSU then scored eight of the next 10 points to take an 8-6 lead. The teams then traded buckets over the next five minutes. Shriver hit a step back three to tie it at 15-all. West Liberty then scored eight points to WVSU's four and the quarter ended with West Liberty clinging to a 23-19 lead.

State cut the lead to 25-23 with about eight and a half minutes left in the period, but then both teams went on a three minute drought until the 5:17 mark when Imani Reid tied the game up at 25-all. West Liberty then went on a 7-1 run, followed by another drought that lasted almost two minutes. Jordan closed out the scoring in the quarter with an and-one opportunity that she converted, sending the teams to the locker room with State trailing by three, 35-32.

WVSU went on an 11-1 run over a two minute period to start the third quarter, forcing five Hilltopper turnovers, 43-39. Russell hit four layups to headline the run. West Liberty halted the momentum immediately after the under five media timeout with a couple of layups. State closed the period on a 7-2 run and took a 61-52 lead into the final quarter.

West Liberty started the quarter on a 6-0 run to close the lead to 61-58. Anysa Jordan drove the paint and drew a foul. The layup fell and she hit the subsequent bonus foul shot to stop the bleeding. State then went on a 7-2 run of their own just before the under five timeout to take a 71-66 lead heading into the final 4:17 of regulation. West Liberty cut the lead to 73-70 right before Shelby Harmeyer hit a trey that got launched from another zip code with just over a minute to go, 76-70. West Liberty cut the lead to 76-74 and Anysa Jordan hit a much needed layup with 10 seconds left to extend the lead to two possessions. West Liberty cut it to two with four seconds left. Harmeyer hit both foul shots to re-extend the lead to four and Russell stole the ball on the inbound to seal the victory.

Up Next
WVSU takes a week off before welcoming the Salem Tigers into the Walker Convocation Center on Monday, Dec. 19. The final home non-conference matchup will tip-off at 2:00 pm.