Calhoun Scores Double Double as Wheeling Falls to Fairmont
Wheeling, W. Va. - On Wednesday night, the Wheeling University Women's Basketball team (6-17, 6-13) hosted Fairmont State looking to sweep the season series with the Falcons. Unfortunatley, this one did not go their way as they fell 89-53 to move to 6-13 in Mountain East Conference (MEC) play. It was another big effort for Lauren Calhoun, finishing with a double-double, but it wasn't enough to carry her team to victory.
Early on, Fairmont State was hot from beyond the three-point arc, and put Wheeling in a hole early. They hit a pair of threes over the first two and a half minutes of the game and built a 6-2 lead over the Cardinals. However, Wheeling would continue to fight and a Lauren Calhoun layup bright the score even at 6-6. Fairmont would hit a free throw and a bucket to bring the score to 9-6, but the Cardinals rattled off four straight points, capped off with an Ally Ziegler jumper that gave Wheeling their first lead of the day 10-9. The lead would not stay in their favor for long as Fairmont State went on a 7-0 run that had them ahead 17-10. They would maintain that seven-point lead for the rest of the half and led 17-12 by quarter's end.
As the game moved into the second quarter, Fairmont State would score the first three points before a jumper by Calhoun got the offense started. Taylor Cullen came in for Calhoun after a foul and hit a big three-pointer that brought the Cardinals back to within 10 points with 7:30 left before halftime. The Falcons offense would continue to score throughout the second quarter, but Wheeling kept fighting throughout. Freshman Shamia Strayhorn played big in the second quarter, scoring four of her six points in the period and Calhoun added four more points over the final 7:30 of the first half. As the team's went into the locker room, Wheeling trailed 49-29 and were looking to come out hot in the third quarter.
Wheeling would find that spark at the beginning of the quarter, scoring four of the first seven points of the quarter thanks to a pair of jumpers from Calhoun. As the third quarter progressed, Wheeling saw some of their bench players step up with Taylor Cullen and Emily Holzopfel each hitting buckets to bring the score to 63-39 with 5:39 left on the third quarter clock. Wheeling would be stuck at that 39-point mark until the end of the quarter, when Ava Lickliter hit a jumper. By quarter's end, the score sat at 72-41 as Wheeling was trying to finish strong.
In the fourth quarter, head coach Matt Schmidt would go to his bench and Wheeling responded with 12 fourth quarter points. With Shamia Strayhorn already fouled out, Wheeling turned to the MEC's leading scorer Lauren Calhoun to lead the way. Calhoun finished off the night strong and got to the 20 point mark after just missing it last game. Cullen also got in on the fourth quarter action and just missed her first double digit scoring effort in the game. In the end, it wasn't enough for Wheeling to bounce back as they fell 89-53.
Calhoun led the way and got back on track with her double-double efforts, recording her eighth double-double in her last nine games. She was the lone Cardinal to score in double figures in the game as Cullen just missed the mark with nine points. Cullen shot an impressive 50% (3-6) from the floor and capitalized on her opportunities. However, the shots just weren't falling Wheeling's way as they shot just 32.8% from the floor. They did well from the charity stripe, hitting 66.7% of their shots and head into their final three games looking for a consistent shooting effort.
The Wheeling Women's Basketball team is back in action on Saturday, February 19th, when they hit the road to take on Frostburg State with tip-off at 2 PM.