BUCKHANNON — Prior to their basketball game with West Liberty University this week, the West Virginia Wesleyan Lady Bobcat basketball program recognized junior forward Mari Stewart for recently scoring her 1,000th career point.

The native of Templeton, Calif. scored her 1,000th point in a road contest at Urbana. Stewart scored her 1000th point in the third quarter of their conference game.

As a freshman, Stewart scored 459 points, averaging 17.0 points per game. She was named the Mountain East Conference “Freshman of the Year” in her rookie season.

She upped her points per game to 19.6 her sophomore year as she tallied 412 points in 21 games. She was a MEC First Team selection her sophomore year.

This season, Stewart is averaging 14.5 points per contest.

The West Virginia Wesleyan Lady Bobcats put four players in double-digits against the West Liberty University Hilltoppers in their Mountain East Conference contest, but they dropped an 86-66 decision.

Stewart came off the bench to score a team-high 19 points while Lana Long and Stacy Remer both had 12 points and Tara Goldman tallied 10.

Down 7-4 early, Long and Remer both made jumpers to give Wesleyan their first lead at 8-7.

Following a basket by West Liberty, Rachel Vandertoolen popped in a short jumper as Wesleyan held a 10-9 lead with 4:02 left in the first quarter.

West Liberty closed the opening quarter on a 9-4 run to take an 18-14 advantage after 10 minutes of action.

Down 23-16, the Lady Bobcats scored four straight from the free throw line to make it a 23-20 game with 2:19 gone for the second-quarter clock.

Wesleyan couldn’t get any closer than three points as West Liberty took a 45-37 advantage into the intermission.

Stewart started the second half with a jumper and Remer scored from inside the paint as Wesleyan narrowed the gap to four, at 45-41.

West Liberty scored the next five before Brittney Allen made a three-pointer, the only trey during the game for Wesleyan, to cut it to 50-44.

Stewart followed with an inside basket to bring Wesleyan back to within four, at 50-46, with 6:34 left in the third quarter.

West Liberty scored eight of the next nine points to take a 58-47 lead at the 3:57 mark of the third quarter.

The Hilltoppers still led by 11 at the end of the third quarter by a 67-56 score.

West Liberty put the game away early in the fourth quarter as they made three straight three-pointers to take a 20-point lead, at 76-56.

Wesleyan was never able to get closer than 16 points the rest of the way.

The Lady Bobcats shot the ball at a 42.4 percent clip as they made 25 of their 59 field goals.

Goldman had a team-high six rebounds.

The loss dropped Wesleyan to 4-7 overall and 4-4 in the MEC.

Wesleyan will return to action today when they visit the University of Charleston in a league outing.

The contest is set for 1 p.m.