Box Score Wheeling, W. Va – The Golden Eagles opened up their Mountain East Conference quarterfinal round with a matchup against the Wheeling Cardinals. Charleston, the 2022 Champions, looked to defend their crown in this year's bracket. The last time these two squads met, the Golden Eagles took their second game of the season series with an 86-72 victory at home. The Cardinals suffered a tough loss to West Liberty before coming to WesBanco Arena.
 
The Basics
Location: WesBanco Arena
Score: UC 62, WU 51
Records: UC (22-7, 17-6 MEC), WU (14-15, 12-11 MEC) 
 
How it Happened
To open up the first quarter, Charleston would take a 4-2 lead in the first three minutes of the game with two quick layups from Dakota Reeves and Markyia McCormick. Reeves would extend the lead with a reverse layup from underneath to make it 6-2. Charleston played tremendous defense on their own end of the court, putting both hands up in the air and not swatting at shots to stay out of foul trouble early on. Clarrissa Francis would find two consecutive baskets down low to take a 10-7 lead at the media timeout. After the break, Wheeling found two baskets of their own to tie the game at 10-10, only for Sierra Davis to take the lead back with a mid-range jumper. The Cardinals would catch fire towards the end of the half and take an 18-14 lead into the second quarter. 
 
Francis would take the first points of the second quarter by going a perfect 2-2 from the line, but Wheeling would spread the margin with a three-pointer from Fatima Mohammad to take a 21-16 lead with 7:52 remaining in the half. Francis would then find a hard-earned second-chance layup and cut the deficit to just three points. McCormick would also take a perfect trip to the line and cut the lead to three once again at 23-20 with 4:30 left. Wheeling continued to find shots inside the paint on offensive rebounds allowing for them to maintain the margin over the Golden Eagles despite their efforts on the offensive end. On a breakaway with 2:36 remaining in the half, Dakota Reeves would convert on an and-one to tie the game at 27-27. After McCormick's free throw from the line, she would then find two consecutive jumpers and her second before the horn would give Charleston a 32-27 lead heading into the locker room. 
 
As much of a sharpshooting team the Golden Eagles are, they would go 0-8 in the first half from three-point land. Luckily, they were able to find 20 points in the paint with 9 of them coming off of turnovers. 
 
Francis would pick up right where she left off to start the third as she toilet-bowled home a short jumper to extend the lead to seven points. Moore and Francis grow the margin further with two consecutive jumpers to take a 38-29 lead with 6:25 to go. Palacio's second-chance effort would give Charleston the largest margin of the game at 11 points with a 40-29 lead. Maggie Stephenson would make a big-time play on the defensive end with a block on Lauren Calhoun with 3:10 to go to give Charleston an extra possession. A couple plays later, Reeves would capitalize on defense after a steal and score with 2:33 remaining in the quarter to take a 46-35 lead. At the end of the third, Charleston held a 46-38 lead over the Wheeling Cardinals. 
 
Charleston would reject two Cardinal shots to start the fourth quarter to maintain the lead: the first coming from Francis and the second coming from Haley Moore. Dakota Reeves would answer on the other end with the first three-pointer of the game for Charleston. She would answer again with the second three-pointer of the game for Charleston to take a 52-38 lead and force a timeout from the Cardinals with 8:06 remaining in the game. The timeout would not prevail as the Golden Eagles forced a shot-clock violation after the break and would take the ball right back. On Wheeling's next possession, they were unable to find a shot once again and the horn blew for another shot-clock violation; this in part thanks to another block from Haley Moore. In a quarter that was crucial for the Cardinals to score, they were held to just one basket in nearly seven minutes of play. After the media timeout, the Cardinals would find a triple from Mohammad to cut the lead to 15 points with just over four minutes remaining. After McCormick's quick hook shot with 36 seconds remaining, they would run out the clock and hold on to the ball for the 62-51 victory. 
 
Up Next
On Saturday, Charleston will move on to the semi-final game to take on Concord University on March 4^th at 2:30 PM. The Mountain Lions knocked off the West Virginia State Yellow Jackets in overtime 86-83 the game before Charleston played.