Box Score Bluefield, WV - The Golden Eagles responded to Coach Collins demands but fall short in a tough road loss to the Blues of Bluefield State 83-76.
Charleston came out of the locker with intensity and determination with the idea of knocking off a top tier WVIAC opponent and actually built an early 8-point lead before Bluefield realized they were in for a battle Thursday evening. It appeared to be an evenly matched contest througout as the teams were tied 11 different times and exchanged leads on 9 other occasions. With about 5 and a half minutes remaining and UC holding a slight 2 point edge, Bluefield used 2 big buckets from Charlene Diggs to push them past UC and never look back as they built an 11 point late lead. The Golden Eagles continued to fight and drew within 4 in the last minute but the Blues were able to do enough to hang on to the 7 point victory.
UC was led by
Tianni Kelly (Pickerington, OH) who finished with a career-high 19 points and played solid in the post.
LeAnne Ross (Marietta, OH) was able to hit some big buckets late in the game to keep UC in striking distance and ended the game with 15 points, including 4 3-point FG's.
The Golden Eagles had a hard time containing their post player, Shae Mebane, who scored a career-high 28 points to lead the Blue in scoring for the evening.
UC showed much more enthusiasm than their previous game against WV Wesleyan and Coach Collins was happy with their effort saying "I'm happy about the way the girls played tonight, but we have go to start winning games. This is a step in the right direction for our team. There were tears in the locker room after the game tonight. Any time you fight your rear end off and don't get the result you want it's going to hurt. That shows me they wanted this game and left it all on the court. Down the stretch they were able to make a couple of shots and ours didn't go down. That was the difference tonight."
The UC Women will return to action Saturday as they host WV State in Eddie King Gym with the game set to start at 4pm.
