WHEELING -- A Mountain East Conference tournament championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II tournament was on the line for the University of Charleston women’s basketball team Sunday afternoon.
The Golden Eagles were able to earn both as their defense stymied Glenville State all game, leading UC to a 48-43 victory over the top-seeded Pioneers at the WesBanco Arena.
UC (21-10) needed a win to make the Atlantic Regional. The eighth-seeded Golden Eagles will meet top-seeded Indiana (Pennsylvania) in the first round.
Glenville State (24-6) claimed the region's No. 6 seed and meets Winston-Salem in its NCAA opener.
“Glenville was the No. 1 seed for a reason,” UC coach Bubby Johnson said. “Hopefully we both get to represent the MEC the right way come regionals. I’m just really proud of the girls.
“The girls would constantly ask me where we were in the rankings. I told them the only way to guarantee it is to win the conference championship, so don’t worry about that. Now we lock up a regional bid, and that’s amazing.”
Johnson earns his first MEC tournament title as a head coach for UC. He won a MEC title in 2021 and 2022 as an assistant coach for the Golden Eagles. He was hired to lead the program in 2024.
“Obviously it’s a little different, but it’s always nice to help Charleston to stay in ... what the University of Charleston is known for,” Johnson said. “Doing it as a head coach, I hope people are proud of me and I was able to do right.”
UC held Glenville to its lowest point total of the season. The Pioneers were the No. 1 offense in the league, averaging 86 points per game. Their previous low was 50 points, and they had scored at least 70 points in all but three of 30 games.
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“Obviously not the day we wanted,” Glenville State coach Emily Stoller said. “It wasn’t our day today. It’s not like us to score in the 40s. That’s the lowest we have scored all season. Props to Charleston, they were the better team today.”
The Golden Eagles set MEC tournament records for lowest allowed field goal percentage (21%) and lowest allowed 3-point field goal percentage (9.5%), along with most rebounds in a game (60).
“When you look at Super Bowls, people usually get upset when the score is like 10-7 at the half and they wanted a whole bunch of points,” Johnson said. “If that’s what fans were hoping for, I’m sorry to disappoint, but I thought both teams played amazing defense and made people work for everything. You get 60 rebounds against a Glenville team, and they have every right to be proud of themselves.”
The Golden Eagle defense held Glenville without a field goal for more than six minutes in the first quarter in leading 17-13. UC did the same in the second quarter, this time holding the Pioneers without a point for more than six minutes to lead 30-23 at halftime.
Defense remained the theme in the third quarter, but this time the UC offense went cold. The Golden Eagles surpassed four minutes without a point, and their lead was trimmed to just 38-36 after three quarters.
The UC lead remained between one and five points the entire fourth quarter. Leading 44-43 with under a minute to play, Bridget Womber hit a jumper with 42 seconds to play and the shot clock winding down to give the Golden Eagles a three-point lead.
Glenville State missed a wide-open 3-point attempt and Womber secured the rebound with 23 seconds to play. On an out-of-bounds play, Ksenjia Mitric hit Livia O’Dea for a wide-open layup and a five-point cushion with 10.2 ticks to play.
Womber grabbed 16 rebounds to go along with her clutch basket late in the game. UC out-rebounded the Pioneers by a wide margin of 60-32.
