The West Virginia Wesleyan College women ended its 2023-24 season at the Mountain East Conference Championship quarterfinal round against #1-seeded Fairmont State 66-56, Thursday.
 
After a slow first quarter in which the Bobcats shot just 19 percent from the field, Fairmont failed to take a bigger advantage of its 43 percent average and ended the period just eight points up. This kept the Bobcats in the game and in the second half, Wesleyan paced even with the running Falcons, using strong rebounding to accumulate second chance points: a strength it has shown for most of the season.
 
Down 35-25, Wesleyan came out strong after the halftime break and pulled within six points on a jumper by Charlotte Sherrill with 2:15 left in the third but the Bobcats would never take the lead, moving to within five points in the final quarter when Emma Witt hit a short shot from inside the paint with 8:59 on the clock.
 
"It was a well-played game on both sides, although we didn't play real well to start," head coach Brett Vincent said. "A lot of that had to do with them. They're pretty good. They're physical and aggressive and they have a lot of experience.
 
"Once we settled in, we played better and gave ourselves a chance. The bottom line is they're just better than we are. They're better than a lot of people."
 
The Bobcats gave up more points on turnovers (22 to FSU's 11) but its rebounding remained strong. The Bobcats snagged 42 boards to the Falcons' 32 and Desiree Roy accounted for 16 of them.
 
Witt (2nd Team All-MEC0was the game leader in scoring with 25. She ends her season as the team leader in points with 384 (14.8 average) and ranks ninth in the conference, overall.
 
Sydney Baird (MEC Freshman of the Year, All-MEC Honorable Mention) is second on this year's Bobcat scoring chart with 342 points (12.7 average) and ranks 15th on the MEC leaderboard. Baird also shot an incredible 92.5 percent from the free throw line this year to lead all of the MEC and she holds the No. 3 spot in the national rankings. Three-pointers were also her strength and she ended the season eighth in the conference in three-pointers per game.
 
Shelby Genes posted an 8.5 points-per-game average and was the team leader in three-point attempts with 130, completing 37 of them for a 28.5 percent average.
 
Roy dominated the glass for the Bobcats. She is No. 4 in the conference in rebounding with 200 boards for a 7.4 per-game average. She also dropped 206 points for the team.
 
Courtney Wilfong rounds out the top five scorers for the 2023-24 Bobcats. She posted 189 points and had 83 rebounds.
 
Wesleyan closed out its season with a 10-17 record and improved by five wins over last year and made its first MEC Tournament appearance since 2021.