Salem, W. Va. – With a big game coming up on Saturday against rival West Liberty University, the Wheeling University Women's Basketball team (17-10, 11-8) would look to use the final non-conference game is the season to get momentum on their side on Wednesday. The team did just that as they picked up a big road win, taking down Salem 73-51 in their final road game of the regular season. The win gives them a boost heading into their final Mountain East Conference (MEC) game of the regular season Saturday before they kick-off the 2024 MEC Women's Basketball tournament next week.

Over the first five minutes of the game, both defenses came to play as the two teams combined for just three points during that run. After picking up back-to-back steals on Salem's first possession of the night, Rachel Wilson drew a foul and made one of her two free throws to get the Cardinals ahead 1-0. Two minutes later, Salem's Lilliani Krause would hit a jumper to get the Tigers on the board and those were the only two shots that sat on the board. Following the media timeout, it would be Wheeling who broke the drought as Kadie Colebank hit a layup with 4:37 to go in the quarter. However, Salem would take the first meaningful lead of the night, going in an 8-0 run that put them up 10-3 at the 2:51 mark of the quarter. The Cardinals broke the run with a pair of free throws by Briarley Rogers, which kicked off a 7-0 run, and the Cardinals tied the game at 10-10 by quarters end. 

With both teams experiencing highs and lows throughout the first quarter, both were looking for more consistency in quarter #2. The battle of runs continued into the new quarter, and the game sat tied at 20-20 with 6:48 to go before the half. Salem would once again take a lead, this time going on a 6-0 run, and with 3:30 to go before the break it was a 26-20 lead for the Tigers. Shamia Strayhorn would hit back-to-back layups as the Cardinals got to within two points of the Tigers to make it 26-24. Salem would add two more shots of their own before the clock expired and a missed three-pointer in the final seconds of the half sent Salem into halftime with a 30-24 lead. In the first two quarters of play, the Cardinals shot 23% and 28% respectively and looked to make higher percentage shots in the second half.

After ending the second quarter strong, Salem came back out in the third quarter and continued to add on. They got ahead by as much as 39-28 at the 7:50 mark of the quarter, and the Cardinals needed a big shot to get back in the game. They would get just that with seven minutes to go in the quarter as Rogers hit a three-pointer to make it a 39-31 game. It would set the Cardinals off on their biggest run of the day as they outscored Salem 20-2 over the next five minutes of play and the Cardinals flipped the script to take a 49-41 lead. During the run, the Cardinals got four three-pointers, with Rogers hitting three of those three-pointers to total nine of her season-high 23 points of the night. After Salem broke the run with a three-pointer, the Cardinals would score the final six points of the quarter and led 55-44 heading into the final 10 minutes of play.

After shooting under 30% in each of the first two quarters, the Cardinals put together their best effort of the night in the third quarter, hitting 62.5% of their shots. As they entered the fourth quarter, it was the defense that took center stage as they held Salem to single-digits over the final 10 minutes. The Cardinals would get three steals during that time and came up with big stops throughout the quarter. After just one jumper was tallied through the first three minutes of the new quarter, Graci Fairman would hit a pair of free throws to break the run. Two more free throws from Rogers kept the Cardinals offense going and the team would end up scoring 18 points over those final 10 minutes. In the end, the Cardinals were able to hold off the Tigers and picked up a big 73-51 win that gave them their 17th win of the season.

Leading the way for the Cardinals was Briarley Rogers, who scored a season-high 23 points on the night. She played big from three-point range as five of her eight shots came from three-point range as she shot 5-11 (45.4%) from beyond the arc. She was one of three Cardinals to finish with double digit points on the night as Shamia Strayhorn and Rachel Wilson each added 15 points of their own on the night. It was also a big night for sophomore Kenzie Dalton, who led both the defense and the passing game with eight rebounds and seven assists on the night. The key to the game for the Cardinals was the adjustment they made in the second half where they went from shooting 26.4% in the first half to 58.6% over the final 20 minutes to pick up the win.

The Wheeling University Women's Basketball team returns to action on Saturday, March 2nd, when they host West Liberty with tip-off at 2 PM.