Wheeling, W. Va- Coming into this game, the Wheeling University Women's Basketball team (15-11), (10-8) had the chance to extend their winning streak to three games, complete the season series sweep over the first-place team in the Mountain East Conference (MEC), and witness Kenzie Dalton, a player who has spent her entire career with this program, record her 1,000th career point. With their 62-50 win over the Glenville State Lady Pioneers, everything previously mentioned came true. The senior from Marietta, Ohio became the 30th player in Wheeling Women's Basketball history to reach the 1,000-point plateau.
Not long after the opening tipoff, Graci Fairman knocked down the first points of the game for the Cardinals with a three-ball. She would add two more points about a minute later to go up by three, 5-2. Then, Emilia Sierra Lacosta drew a shooting foul from behind the arc, and she ended up making all three shots at the line to pull the Cards ahead 8-2 with under eight minutes left in the opening quarter. Roughly a minute and a half later, Dalton picked up her first points of the game, causing a live ball turnover and turning Glenville's mistake into two points for a 10-5 lead at the 6:16 mark. After the media timeout, the Lady Pioneers were able to formulate a strategy that sent them on a 10-0 across the next two and a half minutes, and in the process, take their first lead of the contest with under two minutes left, 15-10. Lacosta went one-for-two at the line and then nailed a three-pointer to go down by three at the end of the first quarter, 17-14.
Lacosta started the second quarter off with a layup in the paint, which put Wheeling down by just one. However, five points from GSU extended the gap back to six, 22-16. Hillari Baker put her name on the stat sheet next with a nice jumper from the paint, but the Lady Pioneers kept her in check with another five points, now up 27-19 with seven and a half left in the second. Fairman took control of the Cardinal offense once more, scoring the following eight points for Wheeling to make it a three-point game again, 30-27. Two consecutive layups from Dalton gave the Cardinals a brief one-point lead with 2:18 left in the second quarter. Then, the Lady Pioneers drained a three-pointer to go up 33-31 a few moments later. Despite that, Emma Reynolds showed off her range game, hitting a timely three-pointer to not only answer the previous one, but to regain the lead and to take a 34-33 advantage into the break.
The third quarter would not see the opening basket until the 7:53 mark when Fairman made a close-range jump shot to go up by three. Following a caused turnover from the Lady Pioneers, they made a jump shot of their own, but Fairman found Baker in the paint to restore the three-point lead for Wheeling, 38-35 with under seven minutes remaining in the quarter. A block and defensive rebound by Dalton allowed Baker to return the favor to Fairman, now finding her down low to make it a two-possession game, 40-35 with 5:25 left. Baker added a pair of points, and then after a layup and a one-for-two trip at the line for Glenville, Baker nailed a shot from distance to go up 45-40 with 2:14 left. After that, history was made. With 1:11 to go in the third quarter, Kenzie Dalton took a shot from the top of the key and as the ball sailed through the air and swished into the basket, it became official: she had just recorded her 1,000th point in her collegiate career. By doing so, she became the 30th Cardinal to reach the milestone, and that would end the third quarter as Wheeling had a 48-42 lead heading into the final 10 minutes.
Baker's jump shot extended the lead out to eight, and Elena Marin Dawid made one of two free throws to make it a 51-42 game. After Glenville State managed four points in a row, Fairman responded about a minute and a half later with a layup and then Dalton pushed the lead back out to nine with another touch off the glass. GSU drew a foul, and after making both attempts, Fairman answered back immediately on the other end with a pair of points. At the 4:20 mark of the fourth, the Lady Pioneers would not realize in the moment, but they had made their last bucket of the game to make it 57-50. Baker's shot off the glass dropped in despite being fouled, and when she completed the three-point play, she had given the Cardinals their first double-digit lead, 60-50 with 2:43 remaining. Fairman put up the final two points of the game at the free throw line, meaning that Wheeling had officially completed the season series sweep over the first-place Glenville State Lady Pioneers by a final score of 62-50
Graci Fairman was in charge of the Cardinal offense, leading the floor with 23 points by making nine shots from the field. Hillari Baker put up a season-best 14 points off the bench and shot 60% from the field. Kenzie Dalton finished the afternoon with 11 points after making 50% of her shots from the field, but more importantly, she recorded her 1,000th point. Emilia Sierra Lacosta finished with nine points and a team-high nine rebounds, while Emma Reynolds ended with four points.
The Wheeling University Women's Basketball team will travel to Pittsburgh, PA to take on the Point Park Pioneers on Wednesday, February 25th. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
