Box Score WEST LIBERTY – The West Virginia Wesleyan Lady Bobcats simply ran into a better team today against the West Liberty Lady Hilltoppers in a Mountain East Conference contest.
West Liberty, currently tied for first place in the MEC, was simply too much for the Lady Bobcats as they recorded an 88-66 win over Wesleyan.
Adrian Cunningham and Mari Stewart both hit jumpers to stake Wesleyan to an early 4-0 lead with two minutes gone, but it was the only lead Wesleyan would own.
Down 14-7, Stewart popped in a jumper and Allie Browne (pictured) drained a three-pointer to bring Wesleyan to within two, at 14-12.
Wesleyan continued to hang around in the first half as an Allyson Freiermuth jumper left the Lady Bobcats down by only one, at 21-20, with 9:44 remaining in the first half.
West Liberty's Baylen Dyrlund and Wesleyan's Alex Mortenson traded baskets to make it a 23-22 game, but West Liberty went on a 17-0 run to take a commanding 40-22 advantage with 3:09 left in the half.
An Andrea Lee jumper finally ended the six-minute scoring drought for Wesleyan to make it a 40-24 game.
West Liberty would take a 46-27 lead into the intermission.
The closest Wesleyan could get in the second half was 14 points on two different occasions.
Once after a pair of Stewart free throws that made the score 66-52 with 9:44 remaining and again after
KiKi DeVane made a jumper to make the score 68-54 with 8:58 left.
Browne led the Lady Bobcats with 17 points. She was lethal from the three-point line as she was an impressive five-for-six.
Cunningham was the other Lady Bobcat to reach double digits as she scored 10 points.
Stewart added nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
Wesleyan was good on 25 of their 66 attempts for a 37.9 shooting percentage.
The loss dropped Wesleyan to 0-8 in the MEC and 0-11 overall.
They will return to action Monday night when they host Wheeling Jesuit at 5:30 p.m.
(File photo courtesy of Peter Galarneau Jr.)
