CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Charleston held the #16 ranked Hilltoppers to just 48 points but struggled themselves on the offensive end in an 11-point loss Wednesday evening at the Charleston Civic Center.
 
The Golden Eagles shot miserably from the floor in the 48-37 defeat, connecting on less than a quarter of their field goal attempts, going 13-for-53 for 24.5%.  UC did what it intended to do and slow the game down against West Liberty, limiting their attempts to just 49 and defended well, holding WLU to just 35% shooting for the contest but couldn't get in going on the offensive end to pull the upset.
 
West Liberty scored the first 11 points of the game before Charleston woke up to only trail 15-7 after the first quarter. UC continued their momentum from the closing of the first into the second to cut the Topper lead to just two points, 18-16, after a Kiara Johnson jumper in the paint with 3:32 left in the first half.  WLU regained focus on the back of Kailee Howe who drove hard to the basket to either convert a layup or find an open shooter and closed out the quarter on a 7-2 run to take a 25-19 lead into the half.
 
West Liberty continued to lean on Howe in the third, scoring eight of the team's 15 points in the quarter to extend their halftime lead to 14, 40-26, after three quarters of play.  Despite the Golden Eagles forcing 19 Topper turnovers, Charleston couldn't convert those into many points on the other end as UC never threatened in the fourth as the national ranked Hilltoppers cruised to the 48-37 victory.
 
Charleston goes to 4-8 overall and 2-4 in Mountain East play heading into Sunday's matchup with Fairmont State University.  Tip-off is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. in Charleston third game of their four-game homestand.