Wheeling, W.Va- A fantastic, all-around performance Wednesday night by the Wheeling University Women's Basketball team (6-4), (2-2) in front of their home crowd, has the Cardinals ready to head home for the holidays. However, they must take care of business against a non-conference opponent that they have not seen since 2002. The win over Davis & Elkins put them back into good standing in the Mountain East Conference (MEC), but a win over Cedarville tomorrow would go a long way to prepare Wheeling for its tough schedule when it returns for 2026.
Wednesday night saw the Cardinals overtake the Senators by 21 points, 71-50. They controlled the pace of play from start to finish and ended the first quarter leading 19-9. Wheeling continued to separate themselves from D&E in the second quarter and held a 36-18 lead going into halftime. D&E would score 16 points in each of the final quarters, and even slightly outscored the Cards in the fourth, but Wheeling put up its best quarter of the night with 21 points in the third. The Cardinals rode out the clock in the final 10 minutes of play with a variety of bench players seeing the court, which allowed them to coast to a .500 record in conference play.
For the fifth game in a row, Emilia Sierra Lacosta produced 10 or more points with a 20-point performance against the Sens. The 20-piece moved her up to seventh in the conference scoring race, now averaging 15.5 points per game. Lacosta would go 7-16 from the field and would knock down 5-11 from downtown. This season, the sophomore is 30-78 (38.5%) from behind the arc, meaning she leads the MEC in three-point percentage and is averaging the most three-pointers per game in the conference with 3.0 per contest. Lacosta has been noticeable on the defensive side of the ball as well. In the past two games, she has recorded four steals and two blocks. Her eight blocks this season are good enough to place her 10th among MEC competitors.
Defense cannot be talked about without Kenzie Dalton being mentioned. Dalton's two steals against D&E put her at 30 steals on the season for first in the MEC. Her average of 3.0 steals a game makes it hard to overlook her defensive prowess. Dalton showed up offensively against the Senators as well. After only recording 11 points in the previous two games, Dalton racked up 16 points, 10 rebounds, and seven assists. Additionally, she had her best game in the field since November 26th when she drained 7-12 on Wednesday night. The last time she recorded a double-double was against Edinboro earlier this season on November 15th when she dropped 28 points and 10 rebounds against the Fighting Scots. Her seven assists only cushioned her lead atop the conference as Dalton sits at 52 assists, averaging 5.2 per contest. It is clear that whenever Dalton plays with a high level of confidence in her shot selection, the Cardinals are a more complete team.
Graci Fairman was someone who performed exceptionally well on Wednesday as well. She went 6-11 for 14 points against the Senators and recorded her best game since her season-high 19 points against Salem back on December 6th. Fairman is an excellent depth piece for the Cardinals that if not guarded, can really make a team pay.
Wheeling played its best statistical game of the season against D&E. 71 is the highest point total they have scored on an opponent so far this season. Furthermore, the Cardinals made 28 out of its 59 attempts from the field for a season-best 47.5%. Its 41 rebounds along with its 34 defensive rebounds sets new season highs as well. Wheeling continues to be one of the best scoring defenses, and its efforts make it extremely difficult for opponents to convert when they get the ball. Apart from the 67-27 win over Salem, 50 points is the lowest amount of points the Cardinals have conceded. They will look for ways to continue to tighten up the defense even more in its next contest against Cedarville and into the new year for the second half of the season.
The Matchup
The Cedarville Yellow Jackets hail from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) and have a similar record to the Cardinals at 6-5 and 2-2. The Lady Jackets are coming off a 107-41 non-conference blowout win over Ohio Christian University. Freshman Harmony Laker came off the bench to lead the team with 17 points while shooting 7-10 from the field and 3-6 from downtown...in just 18 minutes. Including Laker, there were five players who finished with 10 or more points. The Lady Jackets combined for 26 steals against the Trailblazers with junior guard Regan Hubert accounting for five of them.
The team's leading scorer, Emma Kay Martin, recorded 14 points in the win over Ohio Christian. She averages 11.8 points per game and shoots 33.3% from the field. The redshirt sophomore is most known for her thievery with 24 steals, which equates to fourth in the GMAC.
Wheeling and Cedarville have only encountered each other one time, and it was all the way back on November 22nd, 2002, when the Lady Jackets took down the Cardinals 78-75 in overtime.
The Details
The Wheeling University Women's Basketball team will travel to the Callan Athletic Center to take on the Cedarville Lady Jackets tomorrow, December 20th, 2025. Tip-off is scheduled for 2pm. The game will be streamed live on FloSports HERE and LiveStats can be seen HERE.
