CLARION, Pa. – A huge third quarter gave the Golden Eagles a lead until late in the game, but an equally strong fourth quarter put West Liberty over Clarion by a 78-68 score in Tippin Gym. The Golden Eagles (0-3) and Hilltoppers traded haymakers in the second half, with West Liberty pulling ahead in the final five minutes for the win.
 
The second half was quite literally the tale of two quarters, as the Golden Eagles utterly dominated the third and the Hilltoppers held sway in the fourth. Clarion outscored West Liberty 27-12 in the third to turn an eight-point halftime deficit into a seven-point lead entering the final period. That advantage stuck until the 5:31 mark of the fourth, when the turnaround by the Hilltoppers put them ahead. West Liberty won the scoring battle 32-15 in the fourth quarter.
 
All told, the game was very much in the air until the final few minutes. The lead changed hands nine times and was tied thrice.
 
Jada Smith did the most damage for the Golden Eagles, scoring a team-high 16 points while also recording seven rebounds and three steals. Cory Santoro caught fire in the second half, scoring 12 of her 14 points in the last 20 minutes. Olivia Boocks and Abby Gatesman tied for the team-high with eight rebounds apiece.
 
The Hilltoppers rode a 12-1 run in the first quarter to open up a 14-7 lead, but the Golden Eagles drove that advantage to two possessions with a bounceback late in the quarter. Smith scored in the paint to make it 16-13 with 1:12 left, and then added a free throw with 31 seconds remaining to narrow the gap further. Gloria Bwende made a midrange jumper at the 9:09 mark of the second quarter to cut the lead to 18-16 before an 11-2 run by West Liberty bumped the lead back into double-digits.
 
Again Clarion rallied, though, getting it down to 32-24 on a jumper by Sierra Bermudez and eventually to 32-26 on a turnaround J by Abby Gatesman. That bit of momentum near the end of the first half kicked off a furious rally at the start of the third quarter, when Clarion scored the first three buckets of the period to make it a one-possession ballgame. Smith stole the ball from Corinne Thomas and Audrey Tingle and went the other way to score on consecutive possessions, making it 34-30, and Santoro made a short jumper in the paint to make it a two-point game.
 
West Liberty pulled ahead and made it 39-32, but that sparked a massive 14-0 run by the Golden Eagles that put the home team in the driver's seat. Emily Hegedus hit layup in the paint to tie the game at 39 with 5:57 left in the third, and Clarion took the lead for the first time since the first half when Gatesman scored in the paint to make it 41-39. Olivia Boocks knocked down a corner three to make it 44-39, and Santoro nailed the coup de grace with a fast break layup at the 2:46 mark to make it 46-39.
 
The lead eventually got as high as nine points, but the Hilltoppers whittled that down and eventually took the lead back with 5:34 in the fourth quarter, on a three-pointer by Anna Lucarelli. The teams traded buckets and points for the next few possessions until Karly McCutcheon scored on the fast break to make it 66-63. The Hilltoppers led the rest of the way after their 10-0 run put them ahead 72-63.