CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Fifth-seeded Fairmont State advanced to the semifinal round of the 2018 Mountain East Conference Tournament with a 64-55 victory over fourth-seeded West Liberty on Thursday night inside the Charleston Civic Center Coliseum.
 
The win puts Fairmont State in the semifinal round of the MEC tournament for the third-consecutive season. The Falcons will now take on top-seeded Glenville State on Saturday afternoon at 12 p.m. inside the Charleston Civic Center with the winner advancing to the tournament championship game.
 
Sierra Kotchman led the Falcons with 20 points, nine rebounds and four assists in the victory. The nine rebound performance is a season-high for Kotchman, who received her MEC Freshman of the Year award prior to this evening's game. Senior Kelli Jo Harrison also chipped in 17 points and 14 rebounds to record her 10^th double-double of the season. Harrison did her damage in just 22 minutes of action after battling foul trouble for most of the game. Brooke Kurucz also reached double-figures with 11.
 
On the defensive end of the floor, Fairmont State limited West Liberty to just 24.2 percent from the field (15-of-62) and 12.5 percent from behind the arc (2-of-16). FSU also held a 52-46 rebounding advantage in the win.
 
Fairmont State opened up a 17-8 lead at the end of the first quarter, scoring 15 of the final 18 points in the opening 10 minutes of play.
 
In the opening 13:40 of the game, the Hilltoppers went just 1-of-18 from the field.
 
The Falcons continues to add to its lead at the midway point of the second quarter following a jumper by Kotchman to make the score 29-11 with 4:41 remaining before halftime. From that point, West Liberty outscored Fairmont State 9-0 to cut the Fairmont State lead to 29-20 at the break.
 
With Fairmont State leading by seven (48-41) heading into the fourth quarter, the teams went scored for more than two minutes of the final quarter before West Liberty's McKenna Shives buried a three at the 7:33 mark to close the Falcon lead to just four. However, Fairmont State responded with a three-point play by Harrison and a layup by Ozge Yarga to push its lead back to nine (53-44) with 5:31 remaining.
 
From that point, West Liberty was unable to get closer than seven points the rest of the way as Fairmont State closed out the win.
 
West Liberty (13-16) got a game-high 23 points, 15 rebounds and eight blocks from Marissa Brown. Her eight blocks in the game set a new Mountain East Conference Tournament record. Brandi Beader also reached double figures for West Liberty with 16 points and seven rebounds.
 
West Liberty was able to stay in striking distance for most of the evening by knocking down 23-of-29 attempts from the free throw line (79.3%).