Wheeling, W. Va. – Over the next couple of weeks, there will be a lot of basketball played by the Wheeling University Women's Basketball team (3-11, 3-7). They are playing a stretch of seven games in 14 days, and that stretch continues on Monday when they face Fairmont State with rip-off at 6 pm. It is a game that was originally scheduled for January 12th, but was postponed due to COVID-19 protocols enacted by the team.

The women's basketball team is coming off a hard fought loss last time out when they fell to West Liberty 110-73. Wheeling fell victim to a slow start, that saw them score just 24 first half points and had them behind by 35 points heading into halftime. Over the final 20 minutes of the game, Wheeling put together one of their best offensive efforts of the season, scoring a combined 49 points including a season-high 25 points in the fourth quarter. However, by then the damage had already been done and a 29-point fourth quarter sealed the Cardinals fate. It was still a strong showing for the young Cardinals team, as they look to build and continue to grow from these experiences.

It was another strong game for junior Lauren Calhoun, who led the offensive effort with 20 points in the game. She has not only been one of Wheeling's strongest offensive weapons, but one of the best offensive players in the Mountain East Conference (MEC). Entering play on Monday, Calhoun leads the MEC with an average of 18.1 points per game this season, and is seventh in total points with 253. A lot of her success came from the floor, where she shot 50% on the day, but she was also getting it done from the free throw line. She shot 6-9 from the charity stripe and continues her breakout season for the Cardinals.

Calhoun was helped out by another strong effort from sophomore Shanley Woods, who was Wheeling's other double digits scorer with 12 points in the game. Woods' key to success this season has been her three-point shooting, and she was on fire throughout the day on Saturday afternoon. She led Wheeling with two three-pointers on the day, shooting 2-3 from beyond the arc. She added a 55.5% shooting effort from the floor. Woods' has been a strong outside shooter for the Cardinals this season, and when she is on she adds another level to the Cardinals offense. Freshman Shania Strayhorn rounded out the offense with the only assist of the game, while putting up eight points of her own in the loss.

As we reach the end of January, Wheeling finds themselves right in the thick of the race for the MEC playoffs. Wheeling currently sits in ninth with a record of 3-7 in conference play, sitting two games behind Alderson Broaddus. With the top 10 teams in the conference making the MEC tournament, Wheeling is looking to keep it's standing in the playoff race. If they can grab eighth or seventh place by season's end, they will secure a home game in the first round of the playoffs. However, if they can jump to as high as sixth place, they could skip the first round and earn a bye to get them to the WesBanco arena. Wheeling is still very much in control of their playoff destiny as they look to rack up as many wins as they can before the end of the season.

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