The University of Charleston women's basketball team's seasons of ups, downs, bumps, bruises, injury and adversity still led to a spot in the Mountain East Conference quarterfinals.
The Golden Eagles, behind 27 points and 12 rebounds from all-MEC first-teamer Chyress Lockhart, beat Shepherd, 84-73, on Tuesday at the Charleston Catholic Athletic Complex to earn a berth Thursday at the Civic Center. UC (13-16) will face second-seeded Wheeling Jesuit (23-5) at noon.
"We feel good," UC coach Adam Collins said. "That was the goal. We told the girls when this started there are two championships every year: the regular-season championship, and there's nothing we can do about that, and the conference tournament championship, and all 12 teams have the same shot at it now. I thought we played really well."
The Golden Eagles led the Rams by 13 in the third quarter, after Lockhart's layup with 3:32 left put Charleston up 52-39. Shepherd cut that lead to just two with 6:05 left in the fourth off Morgan Arden's layup. But UC was able to put the lead back to double digits thanks largely to Lockhart's 12 fourth-quarter points.
"If someone's going to come out and pressure us, she's going to score like that all night long," Collins said. "Chryess kept moving and cutting to the ball. I thought she made tough layups and the right pass multiple times."
The Rams (7-22) stayed in the game on the shoulders of Arden, an all-conference second-team selection. The sophomore finished with 37 points and made 13 of Shepherd's 26 field goals.
Olivia Nicholas scored 18 points for Charleston and Mya Walker added 14. Liz Myers was the only other double-figure scorer for Shepherd with 15 points.
UC's season hasn't been the easiest. Picked to finish second in the MEC in the preseason, the Golden Eagles limped to the No. 7 seed after season-ending injuries to three projected starters and Lockhart having to sit a stretch in the second half of the season due to a knee injury. Yet Charleston now gets to face a Cardinals team it split two games with in the regular season. Charleston scored a 68-58 win at the Civic Center, and Jesuit got its revenge with a 75-64 win in Wheeling.
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UVA-Wise 84, W.Va. State 74: The Cavaliers trailed for much of the game but closed the game on a 25-7 run over the final six minutes to earn the Mountain East Conference opening round contest. Wise (13-14) will face No. 1 seeded West Liberty (25-3) at 6 p.m. Thursday in the conference quarterfinals at the Civic Center.
Makenzie Cluesman paced Wise with 29 points, while junior point guard Taylor Sandidge added 21 points and eight rebounds. Alle Moore contributed 13 points for the Cavaliers, with Blair Harding finishing with 10.
For State (13-16), conference Freshman of the Year, Laura Szorenyi led the way with 20 points, followed by Alexus Hobbs with 18 and Shealyn Shafer with 16. Hobbs also grabbed a game-high 10 boards.