MONTGOMERY, W. Va. -- The hosting Golden Bears of West Virginia Tech broke open a 24-point lead in the first half, and held Bluefield off the rest of the way en route to the 77-61 win at the Baisi Athletic Center, Tuesday evening.
 
Bluefield levels its record to 1-1 after opening the season on Saturday with a 64-40 win at Ohio Christian. Meanwhile, WV Tech moves to 1-2 with its first win of the season.
 
Destiny Tolliver logged her second-straight double-double to open the season, pouring in 15 points on 6-for-13 shooting and pulling down 13 rebounds. Shelby Key also registered a double-double, tallying 11 points and adding 10 rebounds.
 
Maryah Mazyck added 15 more for the Lady Rams on a perfect 5-for-5 performance from the field and Valerie Lebedeva chipped in 12 more.
 
The Golden Bears also had four total double-digit efforts, led by 19 from Cheyanna Lusk and 18 from  Nia Nolan. LaKisha Adkins tossed in 15 more and Elizabeth Evans added 11.
 
Four different WV Tech players hit a trio of long-range shots, as the Golden Bears went 12-for-31 from three-point land.
 
A trifecta from Evans with 8:27 remaining in the first half opened the host's lead to 32-8, as BC struggled to find its offense early.
 
However, a jumper from Mazyck in the paint ignited an 18-0 run for the Lady Rams over a span of 6:09.
 
Lebedeva led the charge with eight-straight points for Bluefield, including a pair of threes. Tolliver added a pair of buckets to close the run and also added two from the charity stripe. Mazyck had four points in the rally as well.
 
The Golden Bears went nearly seven minutes without a bucket, but broke the slump with 1:50 left in the half and worked their way to a 38-29 lead at the break.
 
Tolliver scored the first four for BC out of intermission to trim the deficit to five, but the Golden Bears answered with a quick 8-0 run, making the score 46-33 with 16:54 on the clock.
 
Bluefield was only able to trim the deficit back to single digits on one occasion, as part of a 7-0 run put together by Mazyck alone. The junior hit a pair of free throws, a lay-in, and knocked down a three, pulling the score to 70-61 with 58 ticks left.
 
 
But, it was too little too late for BC as the Golden Bears pulled out the 77-61 victory by scoring the final seven points of the contest.
 
Sixteen turnovers from Bluefield transitioned into 25 points for the hosts, while WVTech also used 14 offensive rebounds to gain 17 second-chance points. While BC was able to grab 13 offensive boards of its own, they only tallied nine points.
 
A lot of scoring came from the bench for both teams, as Bluefield had 27 points from its reserves and the Golden Bears 30.
 
Bluefield finished the night shooting 19-for-53 (35.8%) from the field, while WV Tech was 27-for-70 (38.6%).
 
The Lady Rams return to action on Saturday, when they face Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park, Md. Tip is set for 7 p.m.