WHEELING, W.Va. - The No. 5 seed West Liberty University women's basketball team fell 86-71 to No. 4 Fairmont State in the quarterfinals of the Mountain East Conference Tournament Thursday night at WesBanco Arena.

Karly McCutcheon played all 40 minutes and drained a game-high four three pointers scoring 17 points with six rebounds to pace four Hilltoppers in double figures. Sonia Sarda also scored 17, 13 of which came in the second half, while dishing out a game-high six assists. Grace Faulk netted 11 points including three triples and Corinne Thomas added 10.

After falling behind in the first half, West Liberty battled back to get the game within single digits with one minute to play in the third quarter, but the Fighting Falcons answered with a 14-0 run to take back control and close out the game with a double-digit victory.

Faulk and McCutcheon drained long balls on the first two shots of the game for the Hilltoppers and they jumped out to an early 8-2 lead. The Falcons came right back and took their first lead of the game (11-10) at the 4:35 mark. The teams traded leads and Fairmont State was able to bank home a three pointer on the run in the final seconds of the first frame and take a 27-22 lead.

The Falcons held the Hilltoppers without a field goal over the final 4:37 of the first half and used three separate 6-0 runs to build their largest lead of the game (19 points) at the break (51-32).

West Liberty came out of the locker room and battled. The Hilltoppers had a pair of five-point spurts early in the third quarter, then rattled off 10 straight points to get back within single digits Five straight layups were capped off by a Corinne Thomas drive and score to make it a seven point game with just over a minute to play in the third frame.

Fairmont State scored the last four points of the third quarter to get back up, then continued the momentum into the fourth quarter by netting 10 straight points to begin the final 10 minutes and get its lead back above 20 points (73-52).

The Hilltoppers put up seven consecutive points to narrow the margin to 14 with 5:45 remaining, but that would be as close as they could get.

WLU finished the game outshooting the Falcons 10-4 from beyond the arc and had a 46.7% field goal percentage to Fairmont State's 43.7%. The Falcons racked up the margins on the free throw line converting 20 of 22 attempts, while the Hilltoppers visited just six times and made five. Fairmont State also had a 48-34 edge in points in the paint and outscored the Black and Gold 21-5 in second chance points with a 17-12 offensive rebounding advantage.

Fairmont State (23-8) advances to tomorrow's 12 noon semifinal against top-seeded Glenville State. West Liberty finishes the 2022-23 campaign with a 17-12 record.

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Postgame Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Cooper, Karly McCutcheon, and Grace Faulk