BUCKHANNON – Before the season started, first-year West Virginia Wesleyan Lady Bobcat head coach Michael Bari remarked that when teams came into Rockefeller Center this year, they better be ready for a battle.

Bari, trying to rebuild a program that won two games last season, certainly put teams on notice today against Fairmont State in a Mountain East Conference clash.

Wesleyan dropped a 74-67 overtime decision to the unbeaten Lady Falcons, but the message was sent to opposing teams that nobody is coming into Rockefeller Center for an easy game this year.

"Fairmont State got the win, but it was a hard-fought win," remarked Bari. "People are going to come in here and we are going to play them hard."

Wesleyan started slow as Fairmont State raced out to a 21-8 lead after 12 minutes of action.

Wesleyan went on a 7-0 run as Adrian Cunningham (pictured) made a short jumper, Lauren Graham fired in three-pointer and Mari Stewart drained two free throws to cut the Lady Falcon lead to 21-15 with 4:31 left in the opening half.

The two teams would trade points the rest of the half as Fairmont State lead by seven at the break, 31-24.

Fairmont State quickly built their lead up to 14, at 42-28, after three minutes had passed in the second half.

Wesleyan mounted a furious comeback after that.

Stewart made a jumper, KiKi DeVane put a rebound in and Alexa Mortenson popped in a jumper for Wesleyan as they closed the gap to 42-34 with 14:43 remaining.

After Fairmont State pushed their lead back to 11 at 45-34, Wesleyan went on a 9-0 jaunt.

Cunningham put in a lay-up, DeVane scored a lay-up, Browne unleashed a three-pointer and DeVane came back to drop in two free throws during the run to bring the Lady 'Cats to within two at 45-43 with 9:40 remaining in the game.

Wesleyan could never overtake Fairmont State but stayed right on their heels as they were down by one after an Allyson Freiermuth lay-up at 57-56 with 46 seconds remaining.

Emily Lohr made a lay-up for Fairmont State with 23 seconds left, but Wesleyan's Stacy Remer calmly made a three-pointer with four seconds left in the game to force an overtime period.

Wesleyan was outscored in the overtime period by a 15-8 margin.

"Overall I was really pleased with how we played," remarked Bari. "We played two games prior to this and we used those games as a learning experience. We never really played a complete game until this one. I think our kids our finally starting to learn. We will continue to grow and build from a game like this."

Wesleyan had two players reach the double-double plateau.

Stewart had 14 points and 14 rebounds while DeVane had 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Cunningham also reached double digits in scoring with 13 points.

Wesleyan shot the ball at a 31.9 clip making good on 22 of their 69 shots.

The Lady 'Cats struggled from the free throw line hitting on only 18 of their 32 shots for 56.2 percent.

Fairmont State out rebounded Wesleyan by a 55-43 margin.

The Wesleyan defense forced Fairmont State into 26 turnovers.

Wesleyan, now 0-3 on the season, will return to action on Monday on the road as they face Shepherd at 5:30 p.m.

(Photo courtesy of Peter Galarneau Jr.)