Recaps and box scores will be posted throughout the day.
Wheeling 77, Concord 72 (OT) | Final Stats
WHEELING, W.Va. – Wheeling stormed back from a 17-point fourth quarter deficit and defeated Concord in overtime, 77-72, on Thursday night at WesBanco Arena.
Trailing 60-43 with seven minutes left, Wheeling went on a 19-4 run, including 14-straight points at one point, to pull to within three points with just 17 seconds remaining. The Cardinals went through their offensive set, and with seven seconds left, junior forward Lilly Ritz was left open behind the three-point line and buried the game-tying shot. Concord's Maggie Guynn's runner with time expiring would not go down as the game moved to overtime.
"When we called that timeout down 17, Kelsi Chapman, our captain, had some pointed words that helped sort some defense out and give us some leadership," Wheeling coach Mike Llanas said. "Her words were just what we needed."
"Our rally was really led by Kelsi," Ritz commented. "On that three, I wish I could tell you what my reasoning was for taking it, but I was open, and I shot it, and it went in."
"She's a great player, but that three at the end, I don't have words for that," Guynn said. "It is who we wanted to shoot, but they did what they had to do and got the job done."
Concord scored first in overtime on a Maddie Ratcliff layup, but Ritz managed the next three points for Wheeling to put the Cardinals back in front. Riley Fitzwater scored a bucket and Gracie Robinson free throw made the score 70-68 in favor of the Mountain Lions with 2:17 to go. Wheeling would score the next six points and allow just one field goal in the last two minutes to complete the comeback.
Ritz finished with a huge game for Wheeling scoring 28 points and 25 rebounds. The 25 rebounds broke the previous single-game tournament record of 24 that she set last season. She also had six blocked shots and five assists.
"Lilly with 28 points and 25 rebounds, are you kidding me?" Llanas said. "On a big stage, high-pressure... she's our cornerstone."
"She's a big-time athlete," Concord head coach Kenny Osborne said of Ritz. "She goes 100 miles an hour. If she doesn't get a double-double every night, the world may come to an end. She plays so hard and is very talented. She's a difference-maker. She put Wheeling on her back tonight and carried them tonight."
Lauren Calhoun had 14 points and eight rebounds, and Shanley Woods chipped in 12 points.
Concord's Fitzwater had 14 points and 15 rebounds for the Mountain Lions. Guynn added 14 more and also had six rebounds. Keely Lundy contributed 12 points and six rebounds.
Charleston 73, Alderson Broaddus 50 | Final Stats
By Duane Cochran for Mountain East.org
WHEELING, W.Va. – The University of Charleston, the top seed in the Mountain East Conference's southern division and the nation's 13th-ranked team, used a 17-2 run in the final 5:48 of the second quarter to break open a close game with Alderson-Broaddus, the fifth-seed in the north division, and roll to a 73-50 victory in the quarterfinals of the annual MEC Tournament here Thursday evening at WesBanco Arena.
The victory improved UC to 15-2 on the year and earns the Golden Eagles a berth in Saturday's semifinals at 11 a.m.
A-B, on the other hand, finished its season with a 7-11 record.
After a hotly-contested first 14 minutes, Charleston senior guard Brooklyn Pannell, the MEC Player of the Year, took it upon herself to help her team open up some breathing room against the pesky Battlers. Pannell scored 10 of her team's 17 points on the game-changing 17-2 spurt which gave UC control of the contest for good at 37-16 heading to halftime.
“I'm extremely proud of our girls,” first-year UC head coach Tianni Kelly said. “Obviously a win is a win, but I think they did it in grand fashion.
“The first two quarters were phenomenal in terms of our defense. We held them to seven in the first and nine in the second. We were a little shaky in the third, but we talked about it during a timeout, got on them a little bit and they responded extremely well because we held them to 12 in the fourth quarter.”
A-B shot just 21.2 percent from the field in the opening half, but canned 50 percent of its attempts in the third quarter and clawed its way back into contention.
Early in the third quarter Charleston extended its lead to 23 at 45-22 before A-B regrouped and rallied back. Led by freshman forward Iyahnna Williams, who scored 17 of her career-high 19 points in the third stanza, the Battlers fought their way back to pull within 12 of the Golden Eagles at 50-38 heading into the final 10 minutes.
“We've been resilient and we competed right up to this point,” said A-B coach Summer Quesenberry, who just completed her first season at the helm of the Battlers. “We won the first round, got here today and competed. I know the score is indicative of some fast break points for them and points for them off of our turnovers, but we had it within 12 going into the fourth quarter so they couldn't just sub in players from the bottom of their bench. They had to continue playing their starters.”
Charleston weathered the A-B storm in the third quarter, regrouped and scored the first six points of the final period to extend its lead to 18 and it was never really close again.
Redshirt senior forward Erykah Russell led UC in the victory with 26 points and eight rebounds. She scored 19 of her points in the final two quarters.
“I'm proud of myself, but I always feel like I could have done more,” Russell said. “I could have had some more rebounds. The other team got way too many offensive rebounds. I'm proud of myself, but again I could have done better.”
Pannell finished with 16 points for the Golden Eagles, while Anastasiia Zakharova contributed 10 points.
Williams was the lone player for A-B to reach double figures in the scoring column.
“We had a game plan and in the third quarter I came out looking to be aggressive,” Williams said. “They weren't really looking to stop anybody. They didn't stop me on my first two takes so I just kept going and kept being aggressive.”
The Battlers also got nine points from Shay Harper and a game-high 11 rebounds from Hannah Henderson.
Charleston will make its third straight appearance in the conference tournament semifinals and its fourth in five seasons. The Golden Eagles have reached the championship game just once during that span losing to Glenville State, 78-69, in 2019.
Notre Dame 80, West Virginia Wesleyan 33 | Final Stats
By Duane Cochran for Mountain East.org
WHEELING, W.Va. – Notre Dame, the top-seeded team in the Mountain East Conference's northern division, wasted little time exerting its dominance over West Virginia Wesleyan, the No. 5 seed from the southern division, here Thursday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the annual MEC Tournament at WesBanco Arena.
Just 4:15 into the contest the Falcons had built a double-digit lead and for all intents and purposes Notre Dame never looked back as it cruised to an 80-33 victory.
The win, Notre Dame's fourth in a row and its seventh in the last eight games, improved the Falcons to 14-3 on the year and earns them a berth in Saturday's semifinals at 2 p.m. against Glenville State, the No. 2 team from the south. The Pioneers (11-2) eliminated West Liberty Thursday, 118-87. Glenville won the only regular-season meeting with Notre Dame, 76-66, back on Feb. 3.
Led by Marina Adachi and Jada Marone, Notre Dame raced to a 24-6 lead after the first 10 minutes and at the end of the opening half had extended the margin to 32 at 47-15.
The Falcons shot 56.7 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes (17-of-30), including a 6-of-11 showing from 3-point range. Wesleyan, on the other hand, was just 7-of-32 from the field in the first two quarters (21.9 percent), including just 1-of-6 from behind the arc.
Things didn't get much better in the second half for the Bobcats as the contest ended up setting league tournament records for the least points scored in a game by one team (33) and the highest margin of victory (47).
Wesleyan also tied tournament game records for fewest made field goals in a game (15), fewest made 3-point field goals (1), fewest made free throws (2) and lowest free throw percentage (.333, 2-of-6).
“It was a good team win for us,” Notre Dame coach Lauren Macer said. “It was great to get everyone out there. Our first group came out with a ton of energy and the rest of the team just followed suit.”
Adachi, Notre Dame's sophomore guard who led all scorers with 25 points, 18 of which came off of six 3-pointers, agreed.
“We started pressing right from the start and that really helped us,” Adachi said. “We tried to be very aggressive early and it made a difference for us.”
The Falcons' aggressive defense forced 24 Bobcat turnovers and Notre Dame came up with 31 points off of those miscues. The Falcons also outscored Wesleyan in the paint 40-22 and held advantages of 13-2 in fast break points and 12-3 in second chance points.
“We did our best,” Wesleyan coach Vicky Bullett said. “Well, that wasn't our best, but hats off to the season we had. We had very little time to prepare for a good team like Notre Dame.
“I don't think their pressure was any different than what we've seen from Glenville or West Virginia State the other night. We just didn't cut hard and handle it like we should have.”
Wesleyan senior guard Summer Matlack feels Notre Dame was more aggressive in this game than in the Falcons' 76-66 regular-season win over the Bobcats and says NDC was well-prepared.
“I think they did a good job of scouting us and preparing for what we wanted to do,” said Matlack, who led Wesleyan with nine points. “I definitely think they were more aggressive this time and as a result we weren't able to get comfortable out there today.”
Marone chipped in 10 points and a team-high eight rebounds, five steals and four assists for the Falcons. NDC also got 10 points from Amil Ali-Shakir, nine points from Jennifer Oduho and eight points and eight boards from Tamia Ridley.
Matlack's nine points led Wesleyan which also got eight points and six rebounds from Cierra Tolbert. No other Bobcat was able to score any more than two points in the contest.
Wesleyan, which saw its modest three-game winning streak come to an end with the loss, finishes the season with a 6-11 record.
Saturday's semifinal appearance will be the second in a row for Notre Dame and the team's third in the last four years. The Falcons' semifinal matchup with Glenville State will be a rematch of last season's tournament title game which the Pioneers won 80-75.
Glenville State 118, West Liberty 87 | Final Stats
By Duane Cochran for MountainEast.org
WHEELING, W.Va. -- Defending Mountain East Conference Tournament champion Glenville State, the second seed in the league's southern division this season, ended any thoughts of an upset by West Liberty, the third-seeded team in the northern division, here Thursday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the annual league tourney at WesBanco Arena when the Pioneers broke open a close game with a 20-9 spurt in the first 4:28 of the final quarter and cruised to a 118-87 victory.
The win improved Glenville to 11-2 on the year and puts the Pioneers in Saturday's tournament semifinals at 2 p.m. West Liberty, meanwhile, ended the 2021 season with an 8-9 record.
The only regular-season meeting between the teams saw Glenville pull out a hard-fought 101-98 victory. Thursday, at least for a while, it appeared as if the teams were headed toward another close finish.
West Liberty erased a nine-point, 49-40, halftime deficit with an impressive 19-9 run in the initial 5:08 of the third quarter and took a short-lived 59-58 advantage. The Hilltoppers' surge, however, only served to ignite a spark in the Pioneers who quickly answered West Liberty's impressive run with a 19-9 outburst of their own to end the quarter with a 77-68 lead.
That then set the stage for Glenville's red-hot start to the fourth and final quarter. In the final 4:52 of the third quarter and the first 4:28 of the fourth GSC outscored West Liberty 39-16 to take complete control of the contest.
“We all knew it was going to be a game of runs and that we just had to push through,” said Glenville junior guard Re'Shawna Stone, who scored 11 of her team-high 23 points in the third quarter. “They were going to go on runs and we were going to go on runs. I just wanted to make sure as a team that we played hard and pushed through their runs and answered back until there was a breaking point.”
GSC coach Kim Stephens agrees.
“I think she (Stone) hit it on the head,” Stephens said. “I'm proud of the team. They played hard and continued to play hard through their runs. When they made their run to start the third we didn't bat an eye.”
The Pioneers turned the Hilltoppers over 20 times in the game and got 30 points off of those turnovers. Glenville, which had a whopping 27 offensive rebounds, also outscored West Liberty 46-8 in second-chance points and the Pioneers' bench outscored the Hilltoppers, 38-10.
“We fought like crazy and had our chances,” West Liberty coach Kyle Cooper said. “In the third quarter we were able to take a lead.
“I thought our first-shot defense today was really good. To hold them to 48 percent shooting on the game when they had 27 O (offensive) boards. That means we were doing something right early, it's just we did not finish enough plays which is indicative to the second-chance points we gave up which was 46.
“I think if we find a way to get a couple of more crucial boards, especially down the stretch there in the third and early in the fourth then maybe it could have been a different outcome.
“I'm really, really proud of the this group. They've fought and fought. Hats off, though, to Kim and her team. They kept coming at us today wave after wave after wave like they always do. That's a good basketball team we lost to today.”
The Pioneers placed six players in double figures in the scoring column in the victory led by Stone's 23. Zakiyah Winfield posted a double-double for GSC finishing with 20 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Glenville also got 18 points and eight rebounds from Abby Stoller, 13 points from Taychaun Hubbard and 12 points and six rebounds from both Deja Atkinson and Jada Mitchell.
“We have great balance on this basketball team, but we just haven't seen it a whole lot this season,” Stephens said. “It came out early in some of our home games, but it's been dormant. So, it was great to see that balance today. It makes us a better team when the scoring load doesn't just have to be on three or four people. That was probably the most encouraging part of this game for us.”
Senior guard Olivia Belknap led West Liberty with a game-high 36 points. Her 36-point outburst was the sixth-highest in an MEC Tournament game. The 36 points also allowed Belknap to go over 1,000 points for her career. She currently has 1,001.
The Hilltoppers also got 15 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds from senior guard Audrey Tingle. Her 12 assists tied the MEC Tournament single-game record for assists. Tingle now shares that honor with former Hilltoppers' standout Kailee Howe, who did it in the 2015 tourney.
Grace Faulk chipped in 12 points for West Liberty, while Arriana Manzay added 11 points and 10 rebounds and Karly McCutcheon finished with 10 points.
Glenville State, which has won the last three MEC Tournaments, will be making its fourth straight appearance in the league tournament semifinals. The last time the Pioneers missed the semifinals was in 2017.