BUCKHANNON — Glenville State University dropped 16 three-pointers on the Wesleyan women and kept the Bobcats off balance with its incessant five-player substitution for a 99-84 victory in the Rockefeller Center, last Saturday.
Glenville’s Tynasia Bunting (20 points), Dejaan Schuler (16 points) and Jhakia Gist (11 points) alone accounted for 12-of-18 three-pointers and Nwando Okigbo ripped away 14 rebounds while adding 12 points to outshine Wesleyan’s league-leading defense.
Wesleyan remained close through three quarters, tying the contest four times in 30 minutes of play, but Glenville’s strategy of complete 5-player swaps ate into the endurance of Bobcat legs and a 1-point Pioneer lead at the top of the fourth quarter swelled in the final stretch.
For the Bobcats, Emma Witt went 11-of-18 for a game high 28 points and she added seven rebounds in 24 minutes of action. Sydney Baird dropped 22 points and added three assists and six rebounds but turned the ball over six times as part of the Bobcats’ 21 giveaways. Lojain Elfatairy had 13 points, six assists, three rebounds and four turnovers and Shelby Genes added 10 points and three assists while turning the ball over four times.
BUCKHANNON — The game’s leading scorer, Bobcat junior Emma Witt (29 points), surpassed the 1,000-point career mark with her first buckets of the night (and the first two of the game) from the free throw line at the 6:50 mark. She bumped her season average to 20.7 per game which stands as second-best in the Mountain East Conference (MEC) behind Frostburg State’s Emilee Weakley (27.5 per game).
One catalyst to the Bobcat defeat was a sharp decline in rebounding, particularly on the offensive boards. While Wesleyan has maintained an aggressive defense and topped the MEC in offensive rebounds-per-game through the holiday break, Charleston outperformed the Bobcats 32-23 in total rebounds and 12-3 on the offensive end.
The game lead was maintained by the Golden Eagles for much of the game but, as has been common this season, Wesleyan came roaring back and found itself down by just one point with 1:16 left to play but missed shots in the last 60 seconds to seal Charleston’s victory.
Bobcat Sydney Baird (sixth leading scorer in the MEC with 15.9 per game) had 15 points on 4-of-8 shooting, and Desiree Roy posted another double-double, her second of the year, with 13 rebounds and 10 points on 5-of-10 field goals.
Charleston was led by Ksenija Mitric who had 18 points and two rebounds and Jamia Nesmith who posted a double-double 13 points and 10 rebounds.
