South Euclid, OH – The Golden Eagles hit the road on Wednesday evening to face off with Notre Dame College in the Murphy Gymnasium. Charleston looked to find their first win after a tough 84-83 loss at home to the Bobcats of Frostburg State. 
 
The Basics
Location: Murphy Gymnasium
Score: UC 62, NDC 59
Records: UC 14-9 (10-6 MEC), NDC 8-15 (5-11 MEC)
 
How it Happened
It would be six lead changes defining the opening stages of the first quarter with each side shooting well from the floor, but Notre Dame would break away from the back-and-forth scoring with a 9-4 run led by Lilee Carlson who rounded out the quarter for the Falcons with two back-to-back layups from underneath. Despite their good start to the game, Charleston's would shoot 36% from the floor compared to Notre Dame's 50% rate. The Falcons would take a 21-14 lead into the second quarter. 
 
Charleston's defense would hold the Falcons to just nine total points in the second quarter while putting up 16 on the other end of the court. They would shoot 58% from the floor and knock home two triples from Ksenija Mitric to put themselves at even strength after a tough start to the game. The Falcons would hit just four shots in the quarter, hitting 31% of their total attempts and going 0-2 from the charity stripe. The Golden Eagles eliminated the margin they started with in the quarter and went into the halftime break knotted up at 30-30 with Notre Dame. 
 
In the third quarter, both sides would shoot 40% from the floor, but the Golden Eagles would hit two more shots than the Falcons. Taylor Austin, who had herself a night, would put up nine points in the quarter highlighted with a three-pointer at the 7:34 mark to give Charleston a two-score lead. The Golden Eagles capitalized off of Notre Dame mistakes by scoring 10 points off of turnovers in the quarter. Charleston would take a 48-43 lead into the final quarter of play. 
 
The Golden Eagles would start the quarter fast with a 9-2 run in the opening four minutes of the fourth. Notre Dame would then go on a run of their own in order to not let the game out of reach, scoring nine points to get within three of the visitors. Taylor Austin would come up big for Charleston as she would hit three free throws in the dying stages of the game to put Charleston ahead by six points with very little time left. Kennadi Harris of Notre Dame sank a three-pointer with 19 seconds left to go, but the Falcons last efforts would fall up short, giving Charleston the 62-59 road victory over Notre Dame.
 
Up Next
Charleston will be back in the Wehrle Innovation Center this Saturday as they face the Salem Tigers on February 17^th at 2:00 PM.