Charleston Leader

The Yellow Jackets Get the Better of Charleston in First Meeting of the Year

 On Saturday, the Charleston Golden Eagles took the 15-minute bus ride to face the West Virginia State Yellow Jackets. Both teams came into this matchup tied for the top spot in the conference standings alongside Glenville State, which meant a lot of Mountain East Conference basketball fans were going to be spending their Saturday listening to Jack Withrow call this rivalry matchup. 
 
The Basics
Location: Walker Convocation Center
Score: UC 65, WVSU 88
Records: UC (14-4, 9-3 MEC), WVSU (15-2, 10-2 MEC) 
 
How it Happened
The two squads would exchange a jumper and a triple to begin play in the opening period of the ballgame. With 6:21 remaining in the quarter, the Yellow Jackets would find the push they needed to maintain a margin over Charleston, as Destiny Fields and Caroline Scott would both find layups from underneath the basket to take a 9-5 lead. Sierra Davis would find consecutive points with a mid-range jumper and a triple from deep to move the Golden Eagles to double-digits, but by that time the Yellow Jackets had already scored another five points to maintain the lead. Despite Trinity Palacio taking the lead with a quick layup before the break, West Virginia State knocked home a quick three-pointer to take a 25-23 lead into the second quarter. 
 
After Clarrissa Francis tied the game at 25-25, the Yellow Jackets would kick things into high gear with a five-minute 14-4 run that gave them plenty of cushion between them and the Golden Eagles on the scoreboard. Charleston only found three shots inside the arc to go as they would shoot 17% from the field in the quarter. Hannah Shriver's three-pointer for West Virginia State would be the final bucket of the first half as the Yellow Jackets found themselves with a 47-33 lead going into the locker room. 
 
Charleston would shoot 30% better from inside the arc in the third quarter, but the 20 points that they converted were not enough to shorten the deficit as West Virginia State would cover the margin and add three more points to their lead. The Yellow Jackets converted on half of their shots from three-point land and shot 42% from the field (9-21). Nine of the points scored in the third quarter were thanks to Destiny fields who found two triples and a jumper accompanied with a shot from the line. Her free throw would end the third quarter scoring to put the Yellow Jackets up 70-53. 
 
Dakota Reeves and Palacio found the opening five points of the final quarter to chip away at the deficit, but the Yellow Jackets continued to play phenomenal defense on their own end of the court, only allow Charleston to convert on 4-13 shots from inside the perimeter. West Virginia State would take this one at home with a final score of 88-65 over the Golden Eagles. 

Original source can be found here