Glenville State, Charleston Set for MEC Women's Basketball Championship

Glenville State 83, Fairmont State 74

By Duane Cochran

For Mountain East.org

WHEELING, W.VA. – Top-seeded Glenville State uncharacteristically chose not to attend its morning shootaround prior to its semifinal showdown with fifth-seeded Fairmont State here Saturday afternoon in the annual Mountain East Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament at WesBanco Arena.

The decision, however, proved to be the right one. The Pioneers came out on fire connecting on seven of their first 10 shots, including their first four 3-point field goal attempts as they raced to an early 10-point lead and eventually an 83-74 victory over the Falcons.

“That’s not like us is it to not take a shootaround?” said GSU coach Emily Stoller with a smile. “This is my eighth MEC Tournament (as a player or coach) and this is the first time we’ve chosen to not take the shootaround time. It was nothing like we know we’re good enough to come in here and win and not have to shootaround. We just chose to prioritize rest and recovery over getting maybe an extra 20 minutes to shoot.

“We employ a shooter’s system. I was a shooter myself in the system and as long as I’m in this position as a coach I’m always going to preach confidence to the girls I coach. I tell them a shooter’s game is probably 90 percent confidence and 10 percent skill. I knew that as a player myself. Today, that worked out.”

The Pioneers shot 49 percent from the field for the game (28-of-57), including 52 percent from three-point range (13-of-25). Glenville was also 82.4 percent at the foul line (14-of-17) as it ran its record to 24-5 with the win and earned a second straight berth in the MEC Tournament championship game. It also avenged the Pioneers’ loss to the Falcons in the title game last season.

Glenville will face third-seeded Charleston (20-10) Sunday at 1 p.m. in the tournament championship game. The Golden Eagles eliminated seventh-seeded Frostburg State Saturday. The Pioneers and Golden Eagles split their regular-season series.

The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak in MEC Tournament games for the Falcons dating back to 2024. FSU, which won the last two league tourney titles, fell to 21-9 overall this season. Fairmont will now await word Sunday night from the NCAA on whether it did enough to qualify the annual NCAA Divison II Women’s Basketball Atlantic Regional for the third year in a row. The Falcons were ranked seventh in the region coming into the week and the three teams below them all lost. The top eight teams in the region qualify for the national tournament. Fairmont would have to earn an at-large bid.

“That’s the hardest thing about being a coach in the locker room right now,” FSU coach Stephanie Anderson said. “You don’t know how to address your team. I don’t know if I should be giving them hugs and be telling them how much I loved this season or using it as motivation for them to get back to work and get ready for a regional next week.”

After the first 20 minutes Saturday it looked as if Glenville was going to run Fairmont out of the gym. The Pioneers were hitting shots, dominating on the offensive glass and held a 16-2 advantage in second-chance points which helped lead to a 43-28 lead at the break.

“I’m proud of my kids,” Stoller said. “We took the game plan of the scout to the floor and we were able to execute it today against a high-energy team.”

By the 6:34 mark of the third quarter Glenville’s lead had ballooned to a game-high 21 at 51-30 and at the start of the final 10 minutes it was an 18-point advantage. Then Fairmont awoke from its slumber.

The Falcons outscored the Pioneers 25-11 in the first 8:16 of the fourth quarter, including a 12-0 spurt at one point, to close the gap to 74-70 on a three by true freshman Hadley Horne. Horne scored seven of her 12 points in the final quarter.

“I really just did there what I’ve been coached to do all year,” said Horne. “I’ve bought into what coach Steph and Miki (Glenn) have been saying and at that point it came down to us as a team doing what we’ve been coached to do. “We stepped up in a big way and our team came together. That little bit of energy from me created a fire in everyone else and we got rolling. Unfortunately it didn’t turn out to be enough today.”

Glenville’s Stevi Yancy nailed a three with 1:14 remaining to put her team back on top by seven and the Pioneers were able to seal the victory by going 6-of-8 at the foul line in the game’s final 56 seconds.

“Kudos to Fairmont they’re a great team and they’ve had a great season and work hard,” said Glenville’s Jayda Allie, who finished with 15 points and made three of the Pioneers’ last six foul shots. “Shooting-wise my teammates and coaches have a lot of confidence in me and really everyone to make shots. We’re always encouraging and supporting one another.”

The Pioneers got a game-high 18 points from Wonder Nkoyock. Khalia Bryant chipped in 14 points and Nwando Okigbo finished with 10 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

Gabby Reep led Fairmont with 15 points, eight assists, five rebounds and a game-high seven steals. The Falcons also got 12 points apiece from Horne, Haylen Cook and Zaniya Murray.

Glenville’s last tournament title came in 2023. The Pioneers have claimed five MEC tourney championships in their history – more than any other conference program.

Charleston 79, Frostburg State 71

By Duane Cochran

For Mountain East.org

WHEELING, W.VA. – The University of Charleston and Glenville State have waged some epic battles in the championship game of the Mountain East Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament.

Sunday afternoon they’ll have the opportunity for another.

Third-seeded UC jumped on seventh-seeded Frostburg State early and then held off every comeback challenge from the Bobcats as they recorded a 79-71 victory in the semifinals of the annual league tourney here Saturday afternoon at WesBanco Arena.

“I was proud of the way we fought today,” said Charleston coach Bubby Johnson. “At times they crept back in. They had already played two games here and they’re a hard-fighting team which is well coached. I was just proud of our girls for not breaking down when that happened.”

The Golden Eagles, who never trailed in the contest, improved to 20-10 with the win and will square off with top-seeded Glenville State (24-5) Sunday at 1 p.m. for the league tourney title.

UC and Glenville have met five times in the 12-year history of the MEC Tournament Championship Game. The Pioneers have claimed three of those titles, while UC has won two. The most recent meeting between the teams for the championship was in 2023 when GSU claimed a 76-59 win. Prior to that, UC won the Mountain East titles in 2022 and 2021. In 2022 the Golden Eagles were the only team to defeat Glenville, which regrouped and won the NCAA Division II National Championship that season.

Glenville has won a record five MEC Tournament crowns, while UC has two.

Saturday Charleston wasted little time taking control of its game with the Bobcats. UC raced to a 15-2 lead midway through the opening quarter only to see Frostburg patiently and methodically work its way back into contention. In the final 1:22 of the second quarter Frostburg tied the game twice at 31 and 33 before settling for a three-point deficit at the break.

“We went into the game knowing it was not going to be a cakewalk,” said Frostburg’s Julie Spinelli, who finished with 12 points and five rebounds. “We knew we had to be ready to play and give total effort. It was unfortunate the way it started for us. We were ready to play, but we just didn’t play well at the start.”

Spinelli and teammate Jenna Muha, who finished with 20 points and a game-high eight rebounds, keyed the Bobcats’ first rally as they combined for 16 of the team’s 22 second-quarter points.

“One of the things on our white board today in the locker room was have confidence, but keep your composure and don’t go out there cocky,” Muha said. “We’re the underdogs and I don’t know if a lot of people believed in us. We were down 15-2 and probably no one in this area believed we could come back and make it a close game but we did. We’ve always believed in ourselves.”

The problem Saturday for the Bobcats was that every time they did make a run at the Golden Eagles, UC had an answer.

After FSU closed the gap to one early in the third, Charleston quickly pushed the lead back to 10 three minutes later. In the final quarter UC extended its advantage to as many as 16 before Frostburg rallied and trimmed it to seven with 2:19 to play.

However, in the game’s final 1:41 UC guard Paris Stokes scored eight of her team’s final 10 points to help keep Frostburg at bay. Stokes finished with 20 points and four assists to lead Charleston. The Golden Eagles also got 16 points from Jordan Scully, 13 points from both Noelle Polanco and Ksenija Mitric and seven points and a game-high 14 rebounds from Natalie Smith.

“Our philosophy is even if we’re up in a game we can’t act like we’re winning,” Polanco said. “We need to play our best at all times.

“Rebounding was a key for us today.”

Smith agrees.

“Basketball is a game of runs,” Smith said. “We’re going to make runs and they’re going to make runs. The key was we stuck together, played together and answered their runs.”

Frostburg, which was making its second straight appearance in the tournament semifinals, finished its season at 16-15.

“We’re very young,” FSU coach Jenna Eckleberry said. “We pretty much have the whole nucleus of our team returning and I think potentially we can be a scary team in the future.”

Corey Klug