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By Duane Cochran for MountainEast.org

WHEELING, W.Va. – For the University of Charleston the third time was indeed a charm.

Second-seeded UC dropped a pair of regular-season meetings to unbeaten, top-seeded and No. 1 ranked Glenville State. However, Sunday afternoon here at WesBanco Arena in the third showdown between the schools this season in the championship game of the Mountain East Conference Women's Basketball Tournament, Charleston captured the big prize for the second straight time.

Buoyed by the performances of junior guards Trinity Palacio and Markyia McCormick UC wiped out a five-point halftime deficit and claimed a thrilling 80-77 victory over the Pioneers.

A Dakota Reeves 3-pointer with 2:40 to play gave Charleston an 80-71 lead, but GSU went on a 6-0 spurt over the next 2:11 to close the gap to three with 29 seconds remaining. Glenville was forced to foul in the final 29 seconds and sent Reeves, a 96 percent free throw shooter, to the line for a pair with 21.9 seconds remaining. She, however, missed both to extend UC's scoring drought and the Pioneers controlled the rebound and called timeout to advance the ball into the front court trailing by just three.

At the other end UC's defense forced GSU to run clock before it got a good look at a 3-pointer from Re'Shawna Stone which was off the mark with five seconds left. Charleston's Anastasiia Zakharova controlled the rebound, dribbled to the wing and found open teammate Maggie Stephenson at halfcourt with a pass as time expired.

The victory marked the second straight time that Charleston defeated Glenville for the league tournament title. It also improved UC to 21-8 and earns the Golden Eagles a berth in next weekend's NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional which likely will be hosted by Glenville State University.

The Pioneers, who fell for the first time this season, dropped to 29-1. GSU will also earn a berth in the regional and, as noted, is expected to host the event. Seeds, pairings and sites for the regional will be announced by the NCAA Sunday evening.

“God is too good to us,” said a smiling UC coach Tianni Kelly. “The adversity that we faced to get here was unreal. At one point this season we were eighth in the league and to fight and claw our way back to the second seed and finish the tournament strong was unbelievable.

“There were times this year when we wanted to fall apart, but we stayed together, focused on everything that we've been preaching all year long and found a way to get the 'W' today and I'm so proud of them.”

Veteran Glenville coach Kim Stephens says Sunday just wasn't her team's day and gave credit to UC for its outstanding overall play in the contest.

“Today absolutely did not go the way we wanted it to,” Stephens said. “Hats off to Charleston. They played lights out. It was their day, not ours. There's no question of that. They hit some shots late in the shot clock. They banked in threes. There was a point where I just had to laugh because we couldn't have done anything else defensively.

“We're obviously disappointed, but this isn't going to define our year. We had a great year and hopefully we've got a lot of basketball left to play.”

Glenville has always predicated itself on turning its opponents over in games and then cashing in for points off of those miscues. Sunday the Pioneers turned UC over nine times in the first half, but in the final two quarters the Golden Eagles had a total of zero turnovers.

Three big reasons for that were Palacio, McCormick and Zakharova who handled the Pioneers' pressure brilliantly. That trio also combined for 52 of Charleston's 80 points, including 32 in the final two quarters. Palacio, who was named the tournament's most valuable player, finished with 22 points and five rebounds, while McCormick, who had just two points at halftime, ended up with 19 points, 13 of which came in the pivotal third quarter which ended with the score knotted at 58.

“I will admit I was down today because I felt like I wasn't showing up for my team,” McCormick said. “I went back into the locker room at halftime and my team had my back. They told me to be myself. I knew I had to let go of what had happened in the first half and come out and do what I had to do. I knew the game would come to me and I knew my team had my back.”

When GSU focused in on trying to slow McCormick, Palacio, who had played magnificently all game, took over and helped her team take control of the contest for good early in the fourth quarter.

“The chemistry we've built all season long really helped us today,” Palacio, who didn't suffer a single turnover in the game, said. “Marky and I play 30 to 35 minutes a game together and we feed off of one another. We know how to play with each and today things worked well for us.

“These past three days my teammates and my coaches really believed in me. Maybe it's taken me a little longer to believe in myself, but knowing they're supporting me and letting me play ball and played through my mistakes, I think, really helped me perform here.”

Charleston, which shot 55.4 percent from the field in the win (31-of-56), including 47.4 percent from 3-point range (9-of-19), also got 12 points from Reeves and 11 points and five assists from Zakharova.

Glenville connected on 41.8 percent of its field goals (28-of-67), but struggled from behind the arc going just 6-of-22 (27.3 percent). The Pioneers were led by Zakiyah Winfield's 19 points and 10 rebounds and Abby Stoller's 19 points and eight boards. Stone finished with 14 points for GSU, while Taychaun Hubbard chipped in a dozen.

“You know I feel like this can help take the pressure off of us,” Winfield said. “I feel like my teammates and I have handled that pressure well, but people on the outside looking in expect us to be great, win every game and sometimes think we already have games in the bag.

“It hurts, but I don't think it's something we can dwell on. I feel like we have a lot of basketball left so I'm not going to sit here and be upset. Our season's not over yet. I'll be back in the gym tomorrow working on things and getting ready for the regional.”

Members of the all-tournament team include UC's Palacio and McCormick, Glenville State's Winfield, Stone and Dazha Congleton, West Liberty's Audrey Tingle, Notre Dame's Jada Marone and Fairmont State's Sierra Kotchman.

Winfield also claimed the Commissioner's Heart and Hustle Award for the second straight season.

Tournament Leading Scorer
Jada Marone (NDC, 24.5 ppg)

Commissioner's Heart & Hustle Awards
Zakiyah Winfield

All-Tournament Team
Sierra Kotcham (FAIR)
Audrey Tingle (WLU)
Jada Marone (NDC)
Dazha Congleton (GS)
Re'Shawna Stone (GS)
Zakiyah Winfield (GS)
Markyia McCormick (UC)
MVP-Trinity Palacio (UC)