WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – Notre Dame College had a tough schedule this week as they played two top-ten teams in NCAA Division II. On Saturday, the Falcons lost to No. 7 West Liberty University by a final score of 103-84 even as both teams shot 52-percent from the field.

Early on in the game, neither team was able to pull away. Senior Kyauta Taylor scored the first five points of the game for Notre Dame (3-5, 1-3 MEC) with a three pointer and two free throws.

West Liberty (7-0, 4-0) took a three point lead, 13-10, with 16:33 to go in the first half, but NDC quickly came back and a jumper by redshirt-sophomore Drew Scarberry capped a 6-0 run and put Notre Dame up by three points, 16-13.

"Our goal coming into the game was to keep turnovers down, execute, take care of the offensive glass and try to match their shot attempts," said head coach Tim Koenig.

West Liberty, who has now scored over 100 points in their first seven games, manufactured a run of their own and put the next 11 points on the scoreboard. With 13:16 remaining, the Hilltoppers led by eight points (24-16).

The Falcons would get within four points at the 7:41-mark when freshman Cole Hayes knocked down a three pointer with an assist by freshman Levi Frankland, making the score 36-32. That would be as close as Notre Dame could get for the remainder of the game.

The Hilltoppers led by seven points at the 3:05-mark in the first half and proceeded to go on an 11-2 run to take a 56-40 halftime lead.

"Giving up that run going into the break really hurt us," Koenig said. "Going into the locker room down 16 instead of it being a two or three possession game was huge."

In the first half, the Falcons were shooting 50-percent from the field and Taylor had 12 points. WLU was shooting 53-percent and had 20 bench points.

With 18:11 remaining in the game, James Griffin hit a three to put the Hilltoppers ahead by 20 points, their largest lead of the day, 61-41.

After that point, NDC went on an unbelievable run as they scored 24 of the next 33 points and cut the deficit to five, 70-65, with 9:30 remaining. The Falcons hit four three pointers during their run and Frankland knocked down three of them. Taylor scored six points on that run.

"Our guys did a much better job of handling West Liberty's pressure in the second half," Koenig said.

West Liberty would slowly increase their lead and pushed the advantage to double-digits as they went up 75-65 with 8:40 to go. They led by 19 points (96-77) after a Dan Monteroso three pointer with 2:46 remaining. WLU went on to win 103-84.

After the game, Koenig talked about the process of playing with new personnel, following injuries, during a very tough stretch of games.

"Most teams had their learning process in September and we're going through a type of learning process now," he said. "We believe in every guy and we are very confident in what is to come with this team. We're playing a different style right now but the guys are working their tails off. This week was a great opportunity to get better and we did."

For the Falcons, Taylor had 28 points, including 16 in the second half, and grabbed 10 rebounds. Scarberry shot 60-percent from the field and had 17 points, while Frankland added 15 points on 55-percent (6-for-11) shooting. Redshirt-junior Angelo Cugini scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds. The Falcons went 33-for-64 (52-percent) from the field.

The Hilltoppers had five players score in double-digits and, overall, the team shot 52-percent (39-for-75). Monteroso recorded 31 points, five assists and five steals while Eric Meininger had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Jordan Watson had 18 points off the bench and shot 78-percent (7-for-9). WLU shot 44-percent (16-for-36) from three point range and finished with 42 bench points.

NDC will travel to play West Virginia State University on December 6. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.