Photo by Nick Henthorn West Liberty’s Reagan Vinskovich makes a move out of the post Wednesday during the Hilltoppers’ MEC Tournament victory over West Virginia State inside WesBanco Arena.

WHEELING — The West Liberty Hilltoppers are moving on in the MEC Women’s Basketball Tournament after a 78-72 victory over West Virginia State on Wednesday inside WesBanco Arena.

The Hilltoppers, who entered the tournament as the No. 9 seed, topped No. 8 West Virginia State behind a game-high 24 points from redshirt freshman Reagan Vinskovich.

Vinskovich, who had her season debut in January after missing all of last season with an injury, has been a force since returning for West Liberty, being twice named the conference player of the week. She grabbed eight rebounds and dished three assists in addition to her two-dozen points.

“I think the reality of it is, not a lot of people fully grasped the impact that Reagan was going to have in this league, in this region, nationally, all of it,” West Liberty head coach Kyle Cooper said. “She’s an all-conference player that didn’t have the opportunity to play enough games to really, I guess, quote-unquote ‘earn’ that. But what her actions have been, what the stats say, we’ve known it. We’ve known this was coming.”

“For her, the level of adversity that she’s seen, I couldn’t be more excited for her to feel that impact. But I love what I’m seeing with the connectivity around her. When they want to try to play her one-on-one, she is just punishing teams. And that’s what we need her to do. We need her to be the aggressive player that you guys reference. When they’re doubling and when they’re helping off, we’re now playing on the perimeter and having players knock down shots, attack closeouts. So it’s not just the impact of Reagan from a scoring standpoint, it’s the impact of what it does when our team’s connected around her and each other.”

Vinskovich scored 11 points in the first quarter alone.

“You have to come at them from the jump or they’re going to set the tone for us,” Vinskovich said of her early scoring. “That’s not what we want. So, we wanted to be the ones to set the tone early.”

West Liberty held a narrow 19-17 advantage after the opening frame. They led 37-32 at halftime.

West Liberty managed a massive advantage from the foul line Wednesday, shooting 28-39 from the stripe while the Yellowjackets shot 10-14. Some of those trips to the line came at the tail-end of the game where West Virginia State was intentionally fouling, but the differential also came from the Hilltoppers’ execution on both ends of the court.

“The reality of it is they are a physical team,” Cooper said of West Virginia State. “So that’s part of their MO is they’re going to try to dictate a lot of the game with physicality and athleticism. And they should because they have the kind of players that can do that. I thought it’s obviously higher because we’re up down the stretch. That’s going to elevate it naturally.

“Even beside that, the bigger thing for me is as coaches, we talk a lot about growth. These guys get sick of me talking about it, but the first time we played them, we put them on the line 40 times and unfortunately lost the game by three at home when we thought we should have won. Now here we are flipping the script with unbelievable discipline at the rim throughout the game, and it swings the game drastically.”

Down the stretch, it was Anna Lucarelli who handled many of the high-stakes foul shots as West Virginia State tried to fight back into the game late, cutting West Liberty’s lead to as little as three in the fourth quarter, 56-53. Lucarelli shot 8-10 from the line in the fourth quarter.

“It’s a great feeling knowing that I’m confident going to the line,” Lucarelli said. “I struggled a little bit on the free throw line earlier in the season. And I just went back to basics. We have a little shooting court in our backyard and just visualizing myself just out there with my mom or dad rebounding for me and going up like I’ve done this since I’ve been able to touch a basketball. Just having that mindset, it’s really, there’s no pressure behind it. So it’s just muscle memory at that point and all confidence.”

Lucarelli finished with 20 points and eight rebounds.

Besides the free throw differential, Wednesday’s game was remarkably even in multiple other categories. Both teams grabbed exactly 40 rebounds, both teams dished exactly nine assists, and both teams committed exactly 21 turnovers.

Wednesday was West Liberty’s first tournament win since 2022. The Hilltoppers are approaching every game like it’s their last.

“It’s the opportunity to go into another day together,” Cooper said. “And we have a tremendous opportunity ahead of us, but we’re going to enjoy this today and it feels really good. I want them celebrating it– while they’re getting treatment, while they’re getting ready for another great team that we’re going to play tomorrow in the No. 1 seed. And we’re going to go to work as a staff and make sure we’re unbelievably prepared for them.”

“I am so excited. I mean, knowing that each one of these games could potentially be my last, I just want to leave it all out on the floor,” Lucarelli said.

“Have no regrets, play my role of leading, really just enjoying every single moment. And I feel like that’s what I did today as well as my teammates. And, you know, pulled out a win and it’s a great feeling not to be done yet.”

West Liberty will face top-seeded Glenville State on Thursday at 6 p.m. inside WesBanco Arena.

Around the rest of WLU’s lineup, Ana-Isabel Andersson scored 15 points while Olivia Baker scored four points and grabbed eight rebounds.

Baylee Goins led West Virginia State with 23 points. Imani Hickman scored 21.

Frostburg State 78, Point Park 68

WHEELING – Seventh-seeded Frostburg State used an impressive 26-0 run over the final three minutes of the second quarter and the first 3:30 of the third period to wipe out a six-point deficit and roll to a 78-68 victory over 10th-seeded Point Park Wednesday afternoon in the opening round of the annual Mountain East Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament at WesBanco Arena.

The win improved Frostburg to 15-14 overall and puts the Bobcats in Thursday’s quarterfinals against second-seeded West Virginia Wesleyan (18-6) at noon.

Point Park finished its season at 8-19.