By Cody Nespor
For MountainEast.org
WHEELING, W.Va. —The University of Charleston had three players finish with double-doubles as the Golden Eagles defeated West Liberty 66-43 in the opening round of the Mountain East Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament on Wednesday afternoon.
Defense ruled the day inside WesBanco Arena in a matchup between the league’s top shooting team in West Liberty (9-20) and one of the conference’s stingiest defenses in Charleston (16-13).
Kiley Graham (18 points, 10 rebounds), Harper Annarino (12 and 13), and Paris Stokes (11 and 10) all recorded double-doubles for the Golden Eagles in the 23-point victory.
“We really emphasize rebounding,” first-year Charleston coach Bubby Johnson said. “They knew that was an area where we could have success and I thought they really bought into that. They did an amazing job of getting on the glass and being active for us.”
As a team, Charleston out-rebounded the Hilltoppers 58-26. The Golden Eagles forced 46 missed shots and collected 41 defensive rebounds.
“That’s just buy-in,” Johnson said. “At this time of year, everybody’s banged up and a little tired and you just have to find a way to get it done.”
The Hilltoppers shot 16-for-60 in the contest, including 7-for-27 from 3-point range. West Liberty, which entered the game shooting 34.6 percent from 3, had three of its worst shooting performances in its three losses to Charleston this season.
“We just really struggled shooting the basketball,” WLU coach Kyle Cooper said. “You have to give Charleston credit, they smothered us.”
A low-scoring first quarter set the tone for what was a game dominated by defense. West Liberty made one of its first dozen attempts from the floor, while Charleston opened 2-for-10.
A 10-point run by the Golden Eagles gave them a 12-4 lead at the end of the opening frame. A nine-point run in the second quarter saw Charleston open up a 23-9 lead with five minutes left before halftime.
Three straight makes provided a spark for the Hilltoppers, who used an eight-point to cut the lead to 23-17 midway through the second quarter. Charleston scored the final six points of the frame to lead 29-17 at the break.
“When you’re going into the half and you see 29 points for them, you’re feeling pretty good defensively,” Cooper said. “Then you look and you’re still down double-digits.”
Not shooting very well themselves, the Golden Eagles found success in the third quarter going inside to Graham. The 6-2 junior scored eight points during a 14-3 run that gave Charleston its first 20-point lead, 43-22.
“They were going a lot smaller in the third quarter, so I thought it would be a good idea to really stack the post,” Graham said. “If they’re going to play small, we need to go big and get rebounds.”
West Liberty again found a spark late in the quarter, closing the quarter on a 9-3 run to trail 46-31 heading into the final frame. Seven of those points came from senior guard Karli Anker, who made a pair of 3-pointers.
“We hit a few shots and we got in our full-court trap and it felt good,” Anker said. “It felt like it was a back-and-forth game the whole time, even though we were down 15 points.”
Anker led WLU with 11 points, matched by fellow senior Jenna Riccardo. Paige Julian finished with 10 points to round out West Liberty’s double-digit scorers.
Charleston hit four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to keep the Hilltoppers at arm’s length and secure the opening-round win.
The Golden Eagles advance to the quarterfinal round, where they will take on No. 1 seed Fairmont State (24-4, 17-3) at 6 p.m. Wednesday evening.
“We’ve got to do something that maybe the outside world does not think we can,” Johnson said. “But we believe that we can because of how we prepare. I think we’re going to have to move the ball a lot and play unselfishly.”