Entering Thursday's Mountain East Conference women's basketball tournament quarterfinals, University of Charleston coach Adam Collins predicted at least one lower seed would pull off an upset.
His Golden Eagles took their best shot at fulfilling that prophecy in the tournament opener, but the shots that fell in a big third quarter comeback didn't in the fourth. Seventh-seeded UC fell to No. 2 seed Wheeling Jesuit 53-49 at the Charleston Civic Center.
Senior guard Chyress Lockhart led Charleston (12-17) with 13 points, and her 3-pointer with 24 seconds left cut the Cardinals' lead to 49-46. But Jesuit (24-5) held Charleston at bay with 15 points from Jaila Bryant and 11 points and 11 rebounds from Chenelle Moore.
Charleston was able to turn a 10-point halftime deficit into a 37-34 lead entering the final period by outscoring Wheeling Jesuit 20-7 in the third. The Golden Eagles went 7 for 15 from the floor in that quarter, while the Cardinals made just 1 of 10 shots.
It was a big shift from UC's 17-point first half where the Golden Eagles made just 6 of 19 shots.
"In the locker room at halftime, they found each other," Collins said, "which is how they played the last five games of the year. It's not a fluke by any means."
Jesuit coach Debbie Buff credited UC's game plan of forcing the Cardinals to beat the Golden Eagles from outside. That outside shooting finally came around in the fourth, when Kylie Frizell hit a pair of 3-pointers in the Cardinals' 6-for-12 final quarter. Meanwhile, Charleston made just 4 of 14 shots in the fourth.
Buff said Wheeling Jesuit's strategy was to neutralize Lockhart, an All-MEC first-team pick, as much as possible and used a new defense to do it. Lockhart shredded Jesuit's man-to-man defense in their first game this season, and wanted to use something other than the box-and-one employed in the second game. The Cardinals went to a 1-3 zone and used the fifth player to face-guard Lockhart.
"If we were going to get beat, we didn't want to get beat by her just controlling the game," Buff said. "She's skilled enough to do that."
Lockhart's 13 points came on 4-of-17 shooting, including 1 of 8 from 3-point range. Kiara Johnson added 10 points and nine rebounds for Charleston.
The Golden Eagles had to clear several hurdles this season, most notably a string of injuries. Three of their top six players were knocked out for the season and both Lockhart and Marissa Koob spent several games on the injury list this year.
"I don't know if it took us a while to get going as much as it took us a while to get healthy," Collins said. "Once we did that, I felt we were as good as anybody out there. But it was frustrating, between the injuries, playing and practicing in different buildings and playing in different arenas for home games, it was a lot these girls endured."
The win advances Wheeling Jesuit into the semifinals against third-seeded Notre Dame College (20-9) at 2:15 p.m. Saturday. The Falcons advanced with an 86-43 quarterfinal win over sixth-seeded Urbana.