Wheeling, W. Va. – With the road to the Mountain East Conference (MEC) Tournament getting shorter and shorter, the Wheeling University Women's Basketball team (12-9, 8-5) continues to push for a tournament spot. The team returns home looking to get back in the win column on Saturday when they host Davis & Elkins at 2 PM on a special senior day matchup. Graduate student guard Bryana Henderson and senior guard Mah Minthe will be honored in a pregame ceremony, beginning at 1:45 as they look to lead the Cardinals to victory.
Wheeling is coming off a close battle in Buckhannon, West Virginia where they fell to West Virginia Wesleyan 57-52. The Cardinal defense, which has been elite over the last three weeks, continued their success early on, holding the Bobcats to just nine first quarter points. Wheeling would take the early advantage, with 15 points of their own, and held that lead heading into halftime. With the Cardinals up 28-22, they extended that lead to start the third quarter, with an 8-0 run that had them ahead 36-22 for their biggest lead of the day. The Cardinals held onto the lead by quarter's end, leading 44-34, but the Bobcats still has some fight in them. They scored a game-high 23 points over the final 10 minutes, overtaking the Cardinals and grabbing a 57-52 victory.
Leading the way for the Cardinals was one of the seniors being honored in Saturday, graduate student Bryana Henderson. Henderson would finish with a team-high 20 points, while shooting 63.6% from the floor. A lot of her success in the game would come from long range, with the graduate student hitting four three-pointers and shooting 50% from beyond the arc. It was her second double digit effort in the last three games, after she scored 10 points against Charleston last Wednesday. Henderson enters play on Saturday as the team's third most efficient shooter from three-point range (.333) and the most efficient free throw shooter on the team at 80%. She looks to lead the Cardinal offense once again as she celebrated her senior day with friends and family.
Redshirt sophomore Rachel Wilson continued her success on the floor, finishing behind Henderson with her sixth double-double of the season. She finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds on the day, picking up her first double-double since putting up 20 points and 18 rebounds against Glenville State on January 15th. Wilson leads the Cardinals on both PPG (11.3) and REB/G (9.3), playing a big role on both ends of the floor. Rounding out the day for the Cardinals was the freshman duo of Kristel Rattasepp and Emilia Sierra Lacosta, who finished with 10 points each. Sierra Lacosta was the more efficient of the two, shooting 40% from the floor, while adding six rebounds, and Rattasepp added a 2-7 mark from three-point range. Both freshman have stepped up in big roles for the Cardinals and look to continue to provide strong play down the stretch.
With Saturday serving as the final weekend home game for the Cardinals, the team will be honoring their seniors in front of their friends and family. Henderson joined the Cardinals three seasons again coming in with Head Coach Anna Kowalska, while Minthe joined the Cardinals this season. With both serving as veteran leaders on the floor, the duo has provided some much-needed leadership for what has been an overall young Cardinal's team. After falling to the Bobcats this weekend, the Cardinals dropped into sole possession of third place in the conference at 8-5. Despite the loss on Wednesday, the Cardinal's magic number to clinch a playoff spot has dropped to four entering play Saturday. A win on the scoreboard would drop that number to two and give them a chance to clinch that playoff spot on Wednesday night.
The Matchup
The Cardinals and Senators are meeting for the 29th time in program history, with Wheeling leading the all-time matchup at 22-6. Half of those previous 22 wins have come on their home floor, where the Cardinals hold an 11-4 record compared to an 8-2 mark when they hit the road. The Cardinals have averaged just over 70 points per game in the series, and have held the Senators under the 70-point mark in each of the last three matchups. Wheeling has won each of the past five meetings between the two teams, and looks to extend that winning streak Saturday.
It will serve as the second meeting between the two teams this season, with Wheeling winning the first matchup back on December 4th, 2024, 79-63. The Cardinals were led by Emilia Sierra Lacosta, who finished with 18 points while going 6-9 (66.7%) from the floor. Bryana Henderson added 14 points in the contest, whole Graci Fairman was strong off the bench with 13 points. The defense was led by Sierra Lacosta, Henderson, and Kenzie Dalton who all had seven rebounds, while Dalton led the passing game with five assists.
The Details
Tip-off for Saturday's game is scheduled for 2 PM I side the Alma Grace McDonough Center, with senior day ceremonies beginning at 1:45 PM. You can watch the action live by clicking HERE or follow along with Live Stats by clicking HERE.
