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Fairmont State Postgame | Charleston Postgame
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By Rich Stevens for MountainEast.org

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Fairmont State University women's basketball coach Steve McDonald is different in his 17th season than he was in his fifth.

Obvious, perhaps, but his assessment of the ebbs and flows of competition might not be as conspicuous.

Fifth-seeded Fairmont State got out to a 14-point lead with 33 seconds left in the first half and didn't let it get under 10 the rest of the game in a dominant 71-57 victory over No. 8 University Charleston (12-19) at the Mountain East Conference Tournament semifinals at the Charleston Civic Center.

The Falcons (19-11) will play in their first MEC title game at 1 p.m. on Saturday against the winner of Friday's second semifinal between No. 2 Wheeling Jesuit (23-6) and No. 3 UVa-Wise (21-10).

"We played with a great deal of energy at the beginning of the game," said McDonald, who is the winningest coach in Fairmont's women's basketball history at 338-165. "Since they made the rule change to four quarters, we discussed the game in terms of five-minute games. We try to win the first five-minute game, then the second five-minute game and so on."

The early advantage that ballooned to 24 with 30 seconds left in the third period was deceivingly precarious at the hands of sloppy play by the Falcons (19-11).

Fairmont State held a 64-42 lead with 4:53 left in the game, at which point the Falcons had turned the ball over nine times - compared to only four in the entire first half. The damage had been done, even if Fairmont missed its four 3-point attempts in the second half. In the first half, the Falcons received their two 3s from Emily Puskarich, who set a tournament record with eight in Wednesday's quarterfinal victory over Notre Dame.

"If you have a basketball team that doesn't play on all cylinders and that basketball team needs to play ..." said McDonald, who then referenced former University of Houston head coach Guy Lewis. "He took Phi Slamma Jama to the national championship game and then lose from pulling the ball out way too soon. There's a time you have to pull the ball out and execute and take some time off. I told my team afterwards, in my first five years, I would have ripped them. But, I don't care ... we're in the championship. "

A Fairmont State team that appeared as an underachiever most of the season handled a Charleston squad that overachieved in the postseason, evidenced by an 82-55 rout of No. 9 West Liberty in the first round, followed by a 65-57 stunner against No. 1 Glenville State.

The Falcons, preseason No. 1 in the MEC with six seniors, did not trail against the Golden Eagles and trailed only twice against Notre Dame.

"They had almost the exact same starting lineup against us two and-a-half or three years ago," Charleston coach Adam Collins said. "They're experienced and were preseason No. 1 for a reason."

Fairmont State held a seven-point lead with one minute remaining in the first quarter, but Anna Hayton scored to cut it to five.

A three-point play from Kelli Jo Harrison extended the lead to eight. The advantage was nine when at 1:55of the first half when Fairmont scored seven of the final nine points for a 14-point lead entering the third.

The lead went to 16 on a Puskarich basket, and 18 on a Puskarich layup at 3:15 of the third. The game's first 20-point lead came off a Deidra Combs bucket less than a minute later.

"The first two games (of the tournament) is indicative of (our) potential," McDonald said.

Charleston's troubles were in shooting, where it was 20-of-59. Guard Jordyn Peck was just 3-of-11 against Glenville, but made 14 foul shots to finish with 21 points. She was 3-of-18 against Fairmont, but made only one of her two free throw attempts.

Peck struggled to get to the basket and was forced away from the block when driving.

"We turned the ball over, missed transition buckets and, when we made a mistake, they were able to convert," Peck said. "When I drove, the girl floated going to the lane and I shot it whenever I felt there was contact. Instead of looking for contact, I should've gone up. They're not going to call it all of the time."

Peck had only nine points while teammate Abby Watson, who had 22 points in a first-round victory over West Liberty, finished with 15 points and six rebounds.

Combs had 23 points to lead Fairmont. Puskarich had 14, Amanda Ruffner 10 and Harrison came off the bench to add 10.
This is the fourth consecutive victory for Fairmont over the Golden Eagles, including the third one this season.

Charleston, the MEC's No. 2 team in scoring defense (64.7 per game), surrendered more than 70 points for the first time since Feb. 11 in a 90-77 loss to Glenville.

"We turned a really good defensive team into one that let a team shoot 50 percent," Collins said.



Box Score
Wheeling Jesuit Postgame | UVa-Wise Postgame
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- With a potential NCAA Division II East Regional berth at stake as well as a possible Mountain East Conference Tournament championship, second-seeded Wheeling Jesuit found itself trailing third-seeded Virginia-Wise by five with just over seven minutes to play Saturday afternoon in the semifinals of the annual MEC Basketball Tourney at the Charleston Civic Center.

The Cardinals, the defending tournament champions, knew what had to be done.

"Our cheer down the stretch was believe," Wheeling coach Debbie Buff said.

Wheeling did that, but the Cardinals also executed very well in the final seven minutes and as a result wiped out the five-point deficit with a 22-11 run to claim a 74-68 victory and earn a spot in Sunday'sMEC Tournament Championship Game against fifth-seeded Fairmont State at 1 p.m. The Falcons defeated eighth-seeded CharlestonSaturday in the other semifinal, 71-57.

With the win Wheeling, which was ranked eighth in the last NCAA Division II Regional Rankings, improved to 24-6 overall. Wise, on the other hand, finished its season at 21-11. The victory was the third this season by Wheeling over the Cavaliers.

Sophomore guard and leading scorer Monica Burns, who struggled to get shots to fall in the first three quarters, and senior forward Jaana Motton keyed the game-winning 22-11 final spurt by the Cardinals. Burns, who finished with 16 points, scored nine in the final 5:41, including a 3-pointer with 4:32 to play which gave her team the lead for good at 59-58.

"My teammates and my coaches gave me the confidence boost I needed," Burns said. "Obviously I was struggling a lot. I needed a pick me up from my team and the coaches and I got it. It was great."

Motton scored five points in the last 3:03 and finished with a team-high 17 points, 10 rebounds, four steals and two blocks.

"For me I'm a senior and this is my last go around so it's all or nothing in the last quarter," Motton said. "I knew I had to give it all I had and make plays."

Wheeling, which only led for 6:36 in the game, connected on 12-of-13 free throws in the fourth quarter and pulled down 12 rebounds in the last 10 minutes, six of which came on the offensive glass and led to some crucial late second-chance points for the Cardinals.

"It came down to us giving them too many second chances late," Wise's Taylor Sandidge said. "Other than that I feel like we did a pretty decent job the whole game. If you take away the second chances it would've been a different game."

The Cavaliers' Makenzie Cluesman, who tied with Kayla Carey for team-high scoring honors with 15 points and also grabbed six rebounds and handed out five assists, agrees.

"We had a couple of mental lapses in not blocking out," Cluesman said. "Our team, though, we gave it our all. We couldn't have asked for anything more."

Wise also got 14 points apiece from both Sandidge and Kayla Mullins.

"We wanted to see Wheeling today," Wise coach Kristin Kunzman said. "We had a tough couple of losses to them in the regular season and we knew it was going to be a tight game which was going to come down to rebounds, second chances and things like that.

"I think that something that's very telling of this team this is year is we were ranked 10th in the preseason and finished third in the regular season and we have 21 wins. I knew this team, no matter what, would not go out without a fight and they fought the whole game."

Wheeling, which won for the ninth time in 11 games, also got 12 points and seven rebounds from Kylie Frizell, 12 points and four assists from Mariah Callen and 11 points and six boards from Chenelle Moore.

"We felt we needed to win today to have a great chance and I think now we'll get that chance (to make the NCAA Regional)," Buff said. "I told them before the game 'Ladies you know what is at stake for us.' They know exactly what's at stake.

"Afterward our team was celebrating and Jaana got into the circle and said 'We still have one more.' That's tomorrow against Fairmont."

Wheeling Jesuit won both regular-season meetings with Fairmont State. The Cardinals claimed a 53-48 win in Wheeling on Nov. 30 and recorded a 62-58 victory Feb. 1 in Fairmont.