Frostburg State 77, West Virginia Wesleyan 71

By Duane Cochran

For Mountain East.org

WHEELING, W.VA. – Much of the talk entering this week’s annual Mountain East Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament centered around the title being wide open for the taking by any number of teams.

Thursday afternoon in the quarterfinals at WesBanco Arena seventh-seeded Frostburg State validated that conversation.

FSU erased a seven-point halftime lead late in the third quarter and then held off every challenge from second-seeded West Virginia Wesleyan in the fourth and final period to record a 77-71 victory.

The win, which improved Frostburg to 16-14, marks only the third time in the history of the tournament that a seventh seed has reached the semifinals and it put Frostburg back in the final four for the second consecutive season.

The Bobcats will face third-seeded University of Charleston (19-10) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the tournament.

Frostburg dropped both of its meetings with Wesleyan during the regular season so Wednesday after its opening-round win over Point Park and Thursday morning FSU head coach Jenna Eckleberry and her team chose to take a bit of a different approach.

“Wesleyan beat us twice so we didn’t expect them to make too many adjustments,” Eckleberry said. “The thing I want to say is how proud I am of our girls because we didn’t have practice and we opted not to shoot around this morning and instead rest.

“We met as a group in our film session and I was throwing a lot of different things out there as to what we were going to do against them. There were all these things and little adjustments without any practice and I’m so proud of our team for staying locked in, switching defenses and doing and executing all of those things today we asked them to do to try to keep them off balance. It was a lot for them to adapt to in a very short period of time.”

FSU’s Jenna Muha, who finished with 17 points and six rebounds, says Eckleberry’s tweeks made the difference against Wesleyan.

“Coach Eck said this morning this may be the worst game plan in the world or it may be the best, but if you all buy in I think good things will happen,” Muha said. “We did that. We trusted her as our leader and that’s what helped us win the game.”

Wesleyan controlled the contest for the first 27 minutes, but in the final 2:32 of the third quarter Frostburg went on an 11-2 run to wipe out a six-point deficit and take the lead for good at 56-53 heading to the final quarter.

Wesleyan did tie the score twice at 67 with 4:28 to play and again at 69 with 3:28 remaining, but could never re-take the lead.

FSU’s Julie Spinelli, who finished with 17 points, scored 12 of those points in the fourth quarter, including four in the final two minutes to help her team pull away and open a six-point lead with just 17 seconds left to play.

“Give Frostburg credit,” said Wesleyan coach Brett Vincent. “They played really well. We knew it was going to be a tough game. They played us tough at their place, they’re getting better and they deserved to win.

“We didn’t play bad. We shot the ball well, but maybe not a good as we could have and maybe that had something to do with the openness of this arena. We just made a couple of bad decisions with the ball at times in the second half and missed a few shots here or there that could have made the difference in a game like this.”

Sophie Nichols led Frostburg with a game-high 25 points, 14 of which came in the opening half.

“This morning coming into the game we were all motivated, locked in and ready to play,” Nichols said. “At halftime only being down seven we knew going back out there we had to give it our all, stay together and play together. We just kept chipping away, eventually took control of the game and once we got to the fourth quarter we felt we could win it.”

Frostburg also got 11 points from Ayla Hileman and a game-high six assists and four steals from Mandy Roman.

Wesleyan, which finished its season at 18-7, was led by Ana Young’s 22 points. Kilah Dandridge chipped in 18 points, Emma Witt added 15, nine of which came in the fourth quarter, and Sydney Baird contributed 10. The Bobcats also got a game-high 11 rebounds from Allie Daniels.

Charleston 69, Wheeling 55

By Duane Cochran

For Mountain East.org

WHEELING, W.VA. – Despite a pair of close meetings during the regular season third-seeded University of Charleston had little trouble handling sixth-seeded Wheeling here Thursday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the annual Mountain East Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament at WesBanco Arena.

The Golden Eagles took control of the contest early and never trailed en route to an impressive 69-55 win. The victory improved UC to 19-10 on the year and sets up a meeting Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in the tournament semifinals with seventh-seeded Frostburg State (16-14).

“I’m really proud of our team,” UC coach Bubby Johnson said. “It’s tough to beat anyone three times in a year. That’s a really good Wheeling team which continues to fight and has a lot of talent.

“We really wanted it today. We’ve been talking about rebounding, offensive rebounds and how at this time of the year the game comes down to offensive rebounds and free throws. I thought in those two areas we did a really good job.”

That might be an understatement. Charleston actually did a phenomenal job on the glass in the game outrebounding the Cardinals 53-23 and was a perfect 7-of-7 at the foul line. UC actually had more offensive rebounds in the contest (25) than Wheeling did rebounds and the Golden Eagles turned those offensive boards into a 20-5 advantage in second-chance points.

“We do definitely try to emphasize rebounding and giving ourselves extra possessions in games,” said UC guard Paris Stokes, who finished with 19 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. “That’s something coach emphasizes every single day no matter whether it’s a light day or a regular day.

“Lately we’ve only been having one or two people crashing the boards hard. Today, I felt like everyone or at least three or four of us crashed hard and it made a difference.”

Wheeling, which saw its five-game winning streak halted with the loss, closes out the 2025-26 season with a 17-12 mark. It’s the fourth straight year the Cardinals have lost in their opening round game in the MEC Tournament. Three of those losses have now come against the Golden Eagles.

“To win in a tournament you’ve got to put four quarters together and today we didn’t do that,” Wheeling coach Ella Skeens said. “I thought we finished strong in the third and fourth, but you’ve gotta put four together, especially against a strong team like Charleston.

“The difference today? Rebounding. That’s no secret. It’s also no secret that we’re not that big on the court so we needed to make it an emphasis to get into them, get low and push them out. We didn’t do that. As a result they scored a lot on second and third chances today and I thought that was more our fault. We’re going to have to get better in the years to come in that area.

“Our free throws weren’t good either. We made just 5-of-12 and that’s nowhere near good enough.”

The contest was a battle of the top two scoring defenses in the MEC. Wheeling came into the game tops in league in scoring defense only allowing 58.9 points per game. UC, on the other hand, is second and gives up just 63.3.

Thursday Charleston’s defense won the war, holding the Cardinals to just 21 points in the first half and just 33 through three quarters.

“We not only emphasize rebounds, we emphasize defense,” UC’s Jordan Scully, who finished with 13 points and seven rebounds, said. “We’re all about getting stops. We always say see a stop, get a stop. We definitely play off of our defense a lot.”

After falling behind by 21 heading into the final quarter, Wheeling rallied and outscored the Golden Eagles 22-15 in the final 10 minutes. The Cardinals got within nine of UC at 62-53 with 2:08 to play on a layup by Kenzie Dalton, but could get no closer.

“This year we had a new coach and a new system but we had the same fundamentals,” said Dalton, who led Wheeling with 20 points, eight rebounds, five steals and five assists. “Our philosophy is defense wins games, but we’ve also got to be able to score more.”

Wheeling also got 13 points from Emilia Sierra Lacosta and 10 from Emma Reynolds.

UC and Frostburg, who will square off in Saturday’s semifinals, split their regular-season series this year with each team winning on its home court.

Corey Klug