CHARLESTON – The West Virginia Wesleyan Lady Bobcats used a big third quarter to pull away from the University of Charleston Golden Eagles for a 56-50 road victory in a Mountain East Conference contest.

With Wesleyan nursing a one-point lead at the half, the Lady Bobcats outscored Charleston by a 19-11 margin in the third quarter and the held on for a six-point victory.

Mari Stewart started the game with a three-pointer but Charleston reeled off the next eight points to take an early 8-3 lead.

With Wesleyan still down by five, at 14-9, Catherine Bandak made a jumper, Adrian Cunningham went inside for a lay-up and Stewart made another trey to give Wesleyan a 16-14 advantage.

Charleston made a jumper at the first-quarter buzzer to tie the game at 16-16 after 10 minutes of action.

Goldman and Cunningham each made a lay-up to start the second quarter to treat Wesleyan to a 20-16 lead.

The two teams traded baskets over the next eight minutes as Wesleyan still owned a four-point lead, at 29-25, with 2:06 left in the second quarter.

Charleston hit a trey to wrap up the scoring in the first half, making it a 29-28 game going into the intermission.

The Golden Eagles hit the first basket of the third quarter to take a 30-29 lead but Wesleyan rattled off the next eight points to grab a 37-30 lead with 6:36 left in the third quarter.

Tara Goldman made a jumper, Cunningham scored two points on a lay-up and then later made two free throws and Allie Browne made a 10-footer during the run.

Up by six, at 43-37, Brooke Richard made a lay-up and Stewart uncorked a three-pointer to increase the Wesleyan lead to 11, at 48-37, with one minute remaining in the third quarter.

The 11-point lead was the biggest lead of the game for Wesleyan.

Charleston made a lay-up at the buzzer to make it a 48-39 game heading into the final 10 minutes of play.

Wesleyan went ice cold from the floor in the first seven minutes of the final quarter as Charleston went on an 8-0 run during that period to close the margin to one, at 48-47.

Browned finally ended the Wesleyan scoring drought at the 2:57 mark as she fired in a three-pointer to put Wesleyan up by a 51-47 score.

Cunningham added a lay-up and Stewart sank a free throw to extend Wesleyan's lead to 54-47 with 34 seconds remaining.

With 18 seconds remaining, Charleston hit a trey to make it a 54-50 game, but Goldman made two free throws to ice the game for Wesleyan as time expired.

Stewart led the offense with 19 points while Cunningham had 16 and Goldman put in 10.

Wesleyan has now won four of their last six games.

The win improved Wesleyan to 6-15 overall and 4-13 in the MEC.

They will return to Charleston this Saturday as they stay on the road for a 2 p.m. conference clash with West Virginia State.