WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The Notre Dame College women's basketball team (6-3, 3-1 MEC) fell 98-94 at West Liberty (3-5, 2-2) Saturday afternoon. Both teams shot well throughout the game, but the Hilltoppers came out on top as they earned 14 second chance points.
 
In the first half, WLU got off to a hot start with a 15-8 lead. That lead later increased to 35-20 with six minutes left in the second quarter after McKenna Shives made a total of six three-point shots in early in the game.
 
After falling behind by 15 points, the Falcons turned things around with a  20-3 run to take their first lead of the game 39-38. NDC led 43-42 going into halftime.
 
In the first half, Notre Dame made 50 percent of its shots (18-36) while West Liberty made 48.5 percent of its shots (16-33). Shots kept falling in the second half as both teams made over half of their attempts in the final 20 minutes (NDC – 66.7; WLU – 51.4).
 
In the third and fourth quarters, the Hilltoppers missed 17 shots. Nine of those 17 misses were rebounded by WLU. Throughout the entire game, West Liberty rebounded 12 of their own shots to score 14 second-chance points. This was evident especially in the third quarter when NDC fell behind by five points after giving up seven offensive boards.
 
The Falcons trailed by double-digits in the fourth quarter and attempted to come back, but the deficit was too much.
 
"West Liberty came out with a lot of energy throughout the game," head coach Lauren Macer said. "We played with energy for some possessions, but couldn't maintain that consistently. It was nice to see us score the ball well, but we need to be able to defend better as a unit."
 
Multiple Falcons made at least six field goals throughout the game as Kim Cook lead the team with 20 points while Seina Adachi had 19, Marisa Finazzo had 17 and Mackenzie Meckes had 14.
 
Cook also led the team with 9 rebounds while Finazzo recorded five. Finazzo and Adachi each had three assists.
 
Notre Dame will be back on the road on Wednesday, December 6, at West Virginia State. The game is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.