WHEELING, W.Va. — On quarterfinal day in the Mountain East Conference women’s basketball tournament, Concord scored an upset win over West Virginia State to start the day at WesBanco Arena. Charleston, Glanville State and Fairmont State also advanced to the semifinal round:
Women’s Tournament Game #3 — No. 7 Concord 86, No. 2 West Virginia State 83, OT:
— By Duane Cochran for MountainEast.org
Senior Nakaila Gray nailed an open 3-point field goal from the left wing with four seconds remaining in regulation to help seventh-seeded Concord tie second-seeded West Virginia State at 73 and force overtime in the quarterfinals of the annual Mountain East Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament here Thursday afternoon at WesBanco Arena.
Gray’s big-time shot fueled the Mountain Lions in overtime as they went on to outscore the Yellow Jackets 13-10 in the extra five minutes and pull off a thrilling victory over the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region’s fifth-ranked team.
“These kids have a fire in their eyes and a determination for each other, our program and the school they represent,” first-year Concord coach Tesla Southcott said. “They’re not done yet. I’m excited for the next game. This is a great moment for us and we’re going to enjoy it and embrace it, but we’re not done. We’ve got more work to do.”
The win improved Concord to 14-16 on the year and puts the Mountain Lions in the tournament’s semifinals for the first time since the 2019-20 season. Concord will face third-seeded University of Charleston Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The Golden Eagles (22-7) eliminated sixth-seeded Wheeling University Thursday.
West Virginia State fell to 22-6 with the loss Thursday. The Yellow Jackets will find out if they’ve done enough to make the NCAA Atlantic Regional on Sunday evening
“You’ve got to give credit to Concord,” said State coach Charles Marshall. “They came out, played extremely hard and made plays at the end. Their victory was well deserved.
“I hope we’ve done enough to keep playing. These ladies have worked their tails off all season to put us in the position we’re in being nationally-ranked and beating some top teams this year. In my opinion I think it would be hard to keep us out.”
Women’s Tournament Game #4 — No. 3 Charleston 62, No. 6 Wheeling 51:
— By Chris Thomas
Third-seeded Charleston used a lock down defense to advance past sixth-seeded Wheeling with a victory on Thursday afternoon in the second quarterfinal matchup of the 2023 Mountain East Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament, presented by The Health Plan.
With the win, Charleston will now take on seventh-seeded Concord, who knocked off the second-seeded Yellow Jackets of West Virginia State, 86-83, in Thursday’s first quarterfinal. The Charleston-Concord semifinal is set for Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. inside WesBanco Arena.
“We are extremely thankful to be in this position. I’m proud of the way the team fought through the slow start and continued to be resilient, and as a result we came away with the outcome that we wanted today, said UC head coach Tianni Kelly.
Charleston, who entered the tournament as the top defensive team in the Mountain East Conference from the regular season, held Wheeling to just 18-of-58 from the floor (31%), including 3-of-11 from three (27.3%). The Golden Eagles forced 16 turnovers — scoring 18 points off those turnovers.
On the offensive end, Charleston got 17 points and four rebounds from Markyia McCormick and 15 points and seven rebounds form Dakota Reeves. Clarrissa Francis also reached double-figures with 13 points to go with six rebounds. Trinity Palacio finished just outside of double-figures with nine points, while Haley Moore pulled down a team-high nine rebounds for UC.
Women’s Tournament Game #5 — No. 1 Glenville State 103, Frostburg State 66:
— By Duane Cochran for MountainEast.org
It didn’t take long for top-seeded and fourth-ranked Glenville State to exert its dominance over ninth-seeded Frostburg State here Thursday evening in the quarterfinals of the annual Mountain East Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament at WesBanco Arena.
Less than five minutes into the contest the Pioneers had doubled up the Bobcats 18-9 and the game was never close again as GSU rolled to a victory.
“I’m really happy,” Glenville coach Kim Stephens said. “That’s a very well-coached team with one of the best coaches in the country and one of the best players in the country. I was nervous about this game, so I feel good to get this one checked off the box.”
Glenville, which is first in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional Rankings, will play in the semifinals of the league tournament Saturday at noon.
Led by first-team All-MEC selections Mickayla Perdue and Breanna Campbell, Glenville connected on 18 of its 37 first-half field goals attempts (48.6 percent), including an impressive 11-of-20 showing (55 percent) from behind the 3-point arc as it built a 24-point, 53-29, halftime advantage. Perdue got 18 of her team-high 22 points in the first half, while Campbell tallied 16 of her 21 points in the initial 20 minutes. Together they combined to go 11-of-21 from the field by halftime, including 7-of-12 from long range.
Campbell, who also pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds for the Pioneers, posted her third double-double of the season.
“We all knew what was at stake and what we wanted to do from the beginning,” said Campbell. “We really wanted to come in here and win, so we all had that fire. We were on the same page. We played hard, played well and I think that’s important going into the next game.”
Women’s Tournament Game #6 — No. 4 Fairmont State 86, West Liberty 71:
— By Duane Cochran for MountainEast.org
Fourth-seeded Fairmont State came into the annual Women’s Mountain East Conference Basketball Tournament as one of the league’s hottest teams.
Thursday evening in the Falcons’ opening-round game with fifth-seeded West Liberty nothing changed.
The Falcons played a marvelous first half, overcame a major third-quarter lull and eventually rolled to a victory over the Hilltoppers.
The win was Fairmont’s ninth in a row and improved the Falcons to 23-8. The nine-game winning streak is the longest for FSU since the 2007-08 season when it reeled off 13 straight wins en route to a 15-1 start. Fairmont also got its first 23-win season since 2012-13.
“Heart,” said Fairmont State coach Stephanie Anderson. “I thought our team played with a ton of heart from start to finish. We were extremely focused. All week our team has had one goal and that was to do our job and I thought our team went out tonight and executed it perfectly.
“Give credit to West Liberty. They played their butts off, but whenever they made runs on us our girls made runs back and that was huge.”
After a pretty even first quarter, Fairmont exploded in the second 10 minutes outscoring the Hilltoppers 24-10 to open a 51-32 lead at the half. The Falcons pushed the margin to a game-high 23 in the first few minutes of the third quarter before West Liberty came storming back.
Led by Grace Faulk and Karly McCutcheon, West Liberty went on a 20-4 run over the next 7:36 to trim Fairmont’s lead to just seven at 59-52 with 1:14 remaining in the third.
“In the locker room we talked about how we had to come out in the third quarter and throw the first punch being down that much,” said Faulk, who finished with 11 points. “That’s just what we do. We stay together and do it as one. We wanted to battle back, especially in the third, to try to make it easier on us in the fourth.”
However, just when it appeared like the game was going to be poised for a great fourth quarter Fairmont regrouped and answered West Liberty’s run. The Falcons scored the final four points of the third to push the lead back to 63-52 heading to the fourth and then reeled off the first 10 points of the final quarter to take a 73-52 advantage with 7:27 remaining.
“In the third quarter we weren’t really playing like we normally play,” said FSU’s Katy Darnell, who posted her team-leading 10th double-double of the season finishing with 15 points and 13 rebounds, nine of which came on the offensive end. “We took some shots we normally don’t take and once that happened we knew we just needed to come together and focus. They went on a nice run, but we knew we could go on one too and once we got focused and answered their run we played pretty well to close it out.”
The Falcons were led by Alyssa DeAngelo’s 22 points. FSU also got 13 points, five rebounds and four assists from Madeline Huffman and 12 points, eight of which came in the last two quarters, from Leslie Huffman.
West Liberty, which closed out its season with a 17-12 record, was led by McCutcheon and Sonia Sarda, who both finished with 17 points. Corrine Thomas chipped in 10 points for the Hilltoppers.
Friday Schedule:
Men’s MEC Tournament Quarterfinals
Noon – #2 Fairmont State vs. #7 Glenville State
2:30 p.m. – #3 Charleston vs. #6 Davis & Elkins
6 p.m. – #1 West Liberty vs. #8 Concord
8:30 p.m. – #4 West Virginia St. vs. #5 Notre Dame