West Liberty, W.Va- The Golden Eagle Women's Basketball team looked to keep their momentum from the big win last Saturday against Frostburg by travelling to West Liberty and downing the Hilltoppers. The game would eventually go into overtime with Charleston falling by four points.
 
The Basics
Location- West Liberty, WV (ASRC)
Score: UC 74 WL 78
Records: Charleston (4-5, 2-3 MEC) West Liberty (6-2, 4-1 MEC)
 
How it Happened
The Golden Eagles had five players with double digit points on Wednesday evening. Dakota Reeves, Markyia McCormick, Sierra Davis and Clarrissa Francis all tallied thirteen points on the night while Anastasiia Zakharova had ten.
 
West Liberty and Charleston would battle it out all night with no team ever able to gain a real advantage. The first quarter saw both teams score fifteen points. In the first half Charleston shot 31 % from the field while adding two three-pointers, both from Sierra Davis.
 
Late in the second quarter the Golden Eagles had a chance to pull away as they managed to produce a 32-19 advantage with 4:30 left in the half. However, the Hilltoppers would not go away quietly as they racked up three straight unanswered threes to end the half. Charleston ended the half with a 32-29 lead and looked to step up in the second half.
 
The third quarter was all West Liberty as the Hilltoppers outscored the Golden Eagles by ten points; 21-14. UC was able to get a few points at the end of the quarter after made free throws by Abby Lee and Anastasiia Zakharova cut the lead to just seven with ten minutes left to decide a victor.
 
However, the fourth quarter would not be enough to decide the game as the score remained tied at 64 at the end of regulation. With just two seconds remaining in the game and down by two Clarrissa Francis would draw a foul and make her free throws to tie the game at 64.
 
The action would go back and forth early in the first overtime period with both teams exchanging baskets and evening the score at 71 with a minute left to play. From there the Hilltoppers would go on a 5-0 run to make the score 76-71 with 17 seconds remaining. Three made free throws from Dakota Reeves would cut the lead to two with 3 seconds left. Charleston tried to foul but the Hilltoppers Audrey Tingle made her free throws to seal with win for the Hilltoppers 78-74.
 
As a team Charleston shot 35% from the field and a solid 52% from three-point range. They collected just four points off of WLU turnovers while collecting a solid ­twenty-two points off the bench. The difference in the game came from turnovers by UC. West Liberty had twenty-two points off turnovers to UC's four.
The Golden Eagles move to 4-5 on the year and 2-3 in Mountain East Conference play.
 
Next Up
The Golden Eagles will have another conference matchup, this time against Wheeling University at 6 P.M on December 13^th.