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18 mbb pegram shot
62
Shepherd SHEPM 3-6/2-4 MEC
67
Winner Wheeling Jesuit WJU-M 8-1/5-1 MEC
Shepherd SHEPM
3-6/2-4 MEC
62
Final
67
Wheeling Jesuit WJU-M
8-1/5-1 MEC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Shepherd SHEPM 33 29 62
Wheeling Jesuit WJU-M 26 41 67

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | Chris Myers

Cardinals Take Final Minutes and Game from Rams

WHEELING, W.Va. – In a battle all afternoon, the Cardinals dialed up the effort in the final minutes. Behind Haywood Highsmith and Brent Pegram, Wheeling Jesuit turned a double-digit second-half deficit into a five-point victory, 67-62, in the final five minutes over Shepherd University in Mountain East Conference men's basketball.
 
Trailing by as many as a dozen early in the second half, Highsmith elevated his second-half game again to lead his Cardinals (8-1/4-1 MEC) on his birthday to the comeback victory. The senior netted 13 points, grabbed seven rebounds and swiped three key steals late in the hard-charging WJU surge.
 
With 4:35 left in the game, Pegram retied the game for a third time in the second half, 59-59, and began a 10-0 game-deciding finish. In the run, Highsmith buried a trey to give the Cardinals the lead for good, blocked a shot, stole two passes and laid down a fastbreak dunk as the exclamation mark on the comeback.
 
"Toughness is a staple of any team that wants to make a run in March," pointed out Danny Sancomb, WJU head coach. "They (Shepherd) were going to make you make some shots. We made them defend a little longer in the second half and pulled the game out."
 
Highsmith hit 8 of 15 shots with a pair of trey for 20 points. He grabbed 11 rebounds for his ninth double-double to go with four steals, two assists and a blocked shot. The forward teamed with Jeremiah Wilson, who also had 11 boards, to clean the second half glass.
 
"Haywood and Jeremiah did an unbelieveable job on the glass in the second half as Shepherd had no second chance rebounds in the last 10 minutes," noted Sancomb. "Drake Goddard played like a senior in the second half and Brent (Pegram) was a big sparkplug and just continues to get better for us."
 
Goddard finished with a season-high 11 points, including a trio of 3-pointers. Pegram kept WJU in the first-half contest with 13 of his season-best 20 points and finished with three treys. Preston Boswell added 10 points and four assists.
 
Down by the 12 points, 43-31, at 16:06 left, Drake Goddard downed back-to-back 3-pointers and added a driving right-baseline layup to pull WJU to within 43-39. Less than two minutes later, Highsmith tied the game at 43 on a layup.
 
Shepherd answered the run with five points in a row and the visitors responded to four more Highsmith points in a row with another short spurt to make it 54-49 at 6:35. From there, a third Goddard long-range shot and a Jeremiah Wilson fastbreak dunk retied the contest, 54-54.
 
The Rams raced out from the opening tip to a 17-4 lead in the first 5:36 of the afternoon.  The Cardinals chipped away at the difference until Pegram drained a tripled at 3:37 in the half for a 22-21 lead. Shepherd came back and ran off 10-straight points and a 33-26 intermission advantage.
 
The Shepherd duo of AJ Carr and Thomas Lang paced their effort with 18 and 17 points.
 
WJU made 14 of 28 from the field in the key second half, while it held Shepherd to on 11 of 33 over the same 20-minute period.
 
WJU has its toughest non-conference road game of the year on Tuesday night (Dec. 12). The Cardinals travel to play the undefeated and top Atlantic Region rated team Virginia State in a 5:30 p.m. game.
  


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