SLIPPERY ROCK — For the first nine minutes, nothing could go wrong for the Slippery Rock University women's basketball team.

The Rock built a 22-4 lead with 11 minutes remaining in the first half against West Liberty State College.

Shots were falling. Turnovers were being forced. A Rock player was corralling every loose ball.

But things went horribly awry after that for SRU in its home opener at Morrow Field House Tuesday night.

West Liberty stormed back, overcame a game tying shot by SRU's Kristen Bonner with less than a second remaining in regulation, and then scored the first 14 points in overtime to escape with a 64-52 win.

"It's a 40-minute game," said Slippery Rock coach Laurel Heilman. "It's all about momentum."

The Rock (3-3) had it in abundance from the start. SRU fell behind 2-0, but then rolled of 22 of the next 24 points, many coming in transition.

West Liberty coach Lynn Ullom called three time outs in the first nine minutes to try to pull his team out of its funk.

"Our reputation is we're a shooting team," Ullom said. "When you shoot 4-of-22 from behind the arc, you have to make it up somewhere and in the first half we didn't make it up. In the first half, we played with a noticeable lack of aggression."

Through it all, Ullom said he knew those shots his team was missing under the basket were eventually going to fall through.

They did in the second half.

West Liberty (3-1) mauled SRU inside, scoring 32 points in the paint in the second half and in overtime.

"I challenged them at halftime," said Ullom, who is in his 15th year as West Liberty coach. "I told them it was one of the top five worst halves I've had the post play collectively."

They certainly played better in the second half scoring and rebounding.

The Hilltoppers had out-rebounded Slippery Rock 49-39 and had 19 offensive boards.

"Those are back breakers," Heilman said. "We're going to be outsized the entire season."

Still, Slippery Rock maintained a cushion deep into the second half.

The Rock led 41-31 with a little more than 13 minutes remaining in the game, but West Liberty went on a 14-0 run to take a four-point lead nine minutes later.

The Hilltoppers led by as many as six points following a 3-pointer by Brandy Terry, but The Rock rallied to cut the lead to 50-48 on a jumper by Amber McFeely with 1:26 remaining.

McFeely scored a team-high 14 points on 7-of-13 shooting.

West Liberty had a chance to ice the game at the free throw line, but Lisa Perry missed the front end of a one-and-one with 12.7 seconds left setting the stage for Bonner's dramatics.

Bonner collected a deep rebound off a miss by McFeely and threw up a shot that banked in with .02 seconds left in regulation.

Bonner finished with 11 points for SRU, which got only five points from its bench.

West Liberty had only four players score, but they all scored in the mid-teens with Lena Kalvans coming off the bench to tally a game-high 18.

What momentum Bonner's shot had given The Rock quickly evaporated in overtime.

SRU missed its first seven shots in the overtime period. Meanwhile, West Liberty shot 50 percent from the floor in overtime and 47 percent in the second half.

Heilman was dismayed the most about her team not seizing the opportunity Bonner had presented The Rock.

"Usually the team that comes from behind and forces overtime is the one that is ready to go, on fire, hungry," Heilman said. "To me, it was a clinic (for West Liberty) for five minutes. It was very disappointing."

But don't think The Rock will dwell on squandering an 18-point lead and losing by 12 at home.

Heilman had a rule in place to rid things like this from the mind of her players.

"The 24 hour rule," Heilman said. "We have 24 hours to be mad and angry, then its time to move on whether it's a win or a loss. So, by practice tomorrow, we'll move on."

WEST LIBERTY (64)

Charity Street 7-14 0-0 15, Lisa Perry 0-3 0-2 0, Leighann Fry 6-14 3-4 15, Brandy Terry 6-16 2-3 16, Carrie Barrick 0-1 0-0 0, Evelyn Woods 0-1 0-0 0, Renee Farina 0-4 0-0 0, Julie Cessna 0-1 0-0 0, Amanda Allison 0-1 0-0 0, Lena Kalvans 8-17 1-1 18. Totals: 27-72 6-10 64.

SLIPPERY ROCK (52)

Amber McFeely 7-13 0-0 14, Angela Greaser 3-5 0-1 7, Amanda Chojnacki 4-12 1-2 9, Kristen Bonner 4-10 1-2 11, Jessica Schake 3-9 0-0 6, Amanda Nero 0-3 0-0 0, Jess Caso 0-0 0-0 0, Dana Stewart 1-3 0-0 2, KellyAnn Staudinger 1-7 1-4 3, Stephanie Schwartz 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 23-62 3-9 52.

Halftime — Slippery Rock, 29-19. 3-point goals — WL 4-22 (Street 1-3, Perry 0-3, Terry 2-7, Farina 0-3, Cessna 0-1, Kalvans 1-5), SRU 3-9 (Greaser 1-2, Bonner 2-5, Schake 0-1, Nero 0-1). Rebounds — WL 49 (Terry 12), SRU 39 (Chojnacki 7). Assists — WL 16 (Perry 6), SRU 8 (McFeely 6). Total fouls — WL 18, SRU 12. Fouled out — none; Technical fouls — none.