WHEELING, W.Va. - The Mountain East Regular Season Champions, the Fairmont State University women's basketball team, faced the ninth-seed, West Virginia Wesleyan in the MEC Tournament Quarterfinals. Behind the 19 points from Leslie Huffman, the Falcons advanced with a 66-56 win.

"I love how much heart this team plays with," head coach Stephanie Anderson said in the postgame press conference. "At first we had to relax but I thought they handled handle runs and bounced back by making tough shots and getting stops when we needed to."

From the opening tip, it seemed that Fairmont State (24-5) seemed to have total control of the game by scoring the first eight points as Katy Darnell accounted for six of them. West Virginia Wesleyan (10-17) tried to slow the run down but jumpers by Jalen Gibbs and Zaniya Murray made it a 10-point game (12-2) with 3:53 left in the first.

The Bobcats slowly worked it back to a six-point game (14-6) but Aaliyah Brunny laid one in to close out the period as the Falcons led 16-8.

In the second, both teams seemed to mirror each other until Wesleyan pieced together a consecutive points to narrow the margin to five (21-16) with 6:19 on the clock. FSU used an 8-2 stretch with threes by Alyssa DeAngelo and Aaliyah Brunny to jump ahead 29-18. The difference fluttered around 10-13 points for the final three minutes as Gibbs made a layup to close out the half. Going to their respective locker rooms, Fairmont State led 35-25.

Coming out of the halftime locker room, the Bobcats were looking to cut into the Falcons lead but the top-seeded team always seemed to have an answer. Late in the period, West Virginia Wesleyan made back-to-back field goals to bring the gap to just six points (48-42) but a Huffman three pushed Fairmont State back ahead by nine (51-42) going to the final 10 minutes of regulation.

To start the fourth period, the Bobcats scored the first two baskets and trailed only 51-46 but the Falcons responded with six-straight points and seemed to have control on the remainder of the game. FSU matched West Virginia Wesleyan for the remainder of the game as the number-one team in the tournament advanced to the semifinals with the 10-point victory.

Down the stretch, Huffman scored nine of the teams 15 in the final period. Besides her 19 total, she added four rebounds and went 7-11 from the field.

"I had no idea I had that many points out of our last 15," said Huffman with a laugh. "I just think in certain pressure situations so many teams are going to focus on Katie (Darnell) and Alyssa (DeAngelo) so much that it provides others on our team with opportunities. Tonight that was the case."

Darnell and DeAngelo added 13 and 11 points while Gibbs grabbed 11 rebounds. The Falcons scored 22 points off turnovers while shooting 43.9-percent (25-57) from the floor and making nine of its 10 free throws. 

Fairmont State will now face the fourth-seed, the University of Charleston on Saturday, March 9 from WesBanco Arena in Wheeling. Start time is slated for 12:00 p.m.