Wheeling Women Advance
Trending
WHEELING -- Despite playing against a team that had beaten them twice this season and going without their best player for half of the game, the Wheeling women's basketball team found a way to win in the opening round of the MEC Tournament Wednesday, 68-62 over Alderson Broaddus.
"I'm really proud of our team and the effort that they had today," said Wheeling coach Matt Schmidt. "We just talked about finding a way to get it done...It was about getting 50/50 balls and winning at least 80% of those and it was about winning on the boards, even if it was just by one or two, and I think it ended up being just by one."
The ninth-seeded Cardinals dropped both regular-season matchups with the Battlers by close margins, including a 6-point loss at home last Wednesday.
"It was a back-and-forth game that really came down to three plays that changed the outcome of the game," Schmidt recalled. "We talked about that last week and we talked about what we can do to dictate (those plays)."
Things looked bad for Wheeling when first team All-MEC center Lauren Calhoun, the leading scorer in the conference this season, picked up her second personal foul just three and a half minutes into the game. Calhoun retreated to the bench, where she would remain for the rest of the first half, as the eighth-seeded Battlers took a 10-6 lead.
Despite losing their best player, good team defense and balanced scoring kept the Cardinals within striking distance of AB, making it easy for Schmidt to save Calhoun for the second half.
"If you're still in the ballgame and it's a close game, we're going to keep our star sitting and try to get her into the second half with only two (fouls) as opposed to possibly three," Schmidt explained. "It was always a one-point or two-point ballgame so, to me, it was an easy decision. If it was going to get away from us, it would've been different and we would've played Lauren in that first half."
Wheeling stayed in the game thanks to 3-pointers by Ava Lickliter, Shanley Woods and Shamia Strayhorn. The Cardinals led 19-16 after the first quarter and only trailed 36-33 at the half.
"With two of their significant players on the bench, our team should definitely make a run and we didn't," said AB coach Summer Quesenberry. "Ultimately, I think that's the difference in the game. We didn't take advantage of that opportunity. It's extremely disappointing to lose, to go back to the hotel, pack up and leave."
Calhoun re-entered the game after the break and powered Wheeling with 18 second-half points.
"It was nice," Calhoun said. "I felt like I came in with a lot of energy because I had been sitting. I felt like I was ready to go and at that point, I was locked in because we were playing so well even when I wasn't playing. When I came back into the game, I just wanted to add to that."
AB nursed a slim lead for the majority of the half until Lickliter hit on another 3-pointer that knotted the score at 60 with 1:39 left to play.
"I thought that was a big momentum swing," Schmidt said. "It was like the weight was lifted off our shoulders and then all of a sudden, we come down and get a stop and go from there."
The Cardinals took their first lead since the first quarter on free throws by Jacqui Hinesmon that put them up 64-62 with less than 30 seconds to play. Calhoun and Strayhorn connected on four free throws down the stretch to secure the victory.
"There's an old saying that it's difficult to beat a team three times in a season and I guess it exists for a reason," Quesenberry said. "Unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of that statistic."
Calhoun led all scorers with 22 points and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds. Strayhorn and Hinesmon scored 11 apiece while Lickliter and Woods added eight and seven, respectively.
AB was led by 18 points from Hannah Taylor, 13 from Iyahnna Williams and Ariyah Douglas and 12 by Nyshae' Weaver.
Quesenberry said this loss will be an invaluable lesson for her young team, which will graduate no seniors heading into next season.
"This lesson is invaluable even if this isn't the lesson that you want," she said. "If you had a child, you wouldn't want them to touch the stove, but they've got to touch the stove to learn. Unfortunately, a lot of our growth this season has been that way."
Wheeling advances to today's quarterfinal round, where they will play top-seeded and No. 1 in the country Glenville State at 6 p.m.
"You enjoy (the win) until midnight and then you have to lock in on what we have to do. At least, the players get to enjoy it until midnight," Schmidt said with a smile. "Glenville State's an elite program but we have nothing to lose and everything to gain. We're going to come out and give it our all and it doesn't get better than that. It's tournament time, anything can happen."