The Yellow Jacket women's basketball team scored the first basket of the game Thursday and never looked back on the way to a 73-60 win over two-time defending champion Wheeling Jesuit in the quarterfinals of the Mountain East Conference basketball tournament.
WVSU pushed its lead to as many as 15 points in the first half and up to 25 in the second before hitting cruise control.
With the win the third-seeded Yellow Jackets move into a semifinal matchup against second-seeded Notre Dame at 2:15 Saturday.
It will mark just the program's third appearance in a conference tournament semifinal round. The last time came in the first year the MEC existed. WVSU, seeded fourth, lost to top-seeded Glenville State 103-75 in that contest as the Pioneers went on to take the crown.
Current Yellow Jacket Head Coach
Charles Marshall was on the opposing bench leading the Pioneers in that game. Marshall is now in his second season at the helm of the WVSU program.
Thursday the Jackets' executed Marshall's game plan to near perfection.
"I'm just so proud of this team, they really showed heart," he said. "We won the game because we just worked harder than they did."
Defensively WVSU harassed the Cardinals into 14 turnovers and just shooting just 27.4 percent.
Meanwhile WVSU was getting nine players involved in the scoring with good ball movement that resulted in 17 assists and a shooting percentage of 48.7.
All-MEC senior guard
Aurreeshae Hines led the way with 20 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals,
Junior
Jordan Miller was hot early and finished with 17 points.
Lyrin Hatcher added 11 rebounds and
Alexandra Jackson had 6 assists. .
The Yellow Jackets dropped both regular season meetings against Notre Dame losing 87-79 at their place most recently and 84-77 in Institute earlier in the season.
"Its going to be a tough task for us," Marshall said. "Again, our early season schedule has prepared us for the opportunity, we just have to come out and want it more than Notre Dame."
.Click here to see Coach Marshall's postgame press conference.
