WHEELING, W.Va. (Nov. 26) – The Cardinals erased a double-digit second half deficit in their 59-51 win against Urbana Tuesday evening in a Mountain East Conference (MEC) game inside the McDonough Center.
 
The Wheeling University men's basketball team continues its strong start under first-year Head Coach Will Ryan and improves to 4-0 overall, 2-0 in the MEC. Meanwhile, the Blue Knights drop to 0-2 in league play, 1-5 overall.
 
Sophomore forward Emmanuel Ansong (Bordentown, N.J./Canterbury School) registered his third double-double of the season with 20 points and 11 rebounds (three offensive). He also chipped in four blocks and two steals in the win.
 
Junior guard Jarett Haines (Bronx, N.Y./New Rochelle) posted 15 points off of the bench, while junior guard Jordan Reid (Silver Spring, Md./Albert Einstein) was just shy of a double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds.
 
Wheeling struggled from the field in the first half. Urbana took advantage and opened up a 13-1 lead through seven minutes. The Cardinals managed to pull back within six at one point, but the Blue Knights managed to pull away again. Urbana led 20-7 with 3:43 left in the first half, before a 10-4 spurt to close out the half had Wheeling back within seven, 24-17, heading into halftime.
 
The Cardinals closed to the gap to five, 26-21, on a baseline jam by Ansong three minutes into the second half. Urbana answered with a trey and built its lead back to double-digits, 31-21, with 15:43 to play in the game.
 
Wheeling went on to out-score the Blue Knights 16-5 over the next five minutes, capped off by a steal and dunk by Reid, to take its first lead of the night at 37-36 with 10:30 left on the clock.
 
Urbana reclaimed the lead at 40-39, but a four-point play by Ansong propelled the Cardinals to a 43-40 lead with 8:16 remaining in the game.
 
Both teams traded the lead multiple times over the next six minutes. Urbana took a 51-50 lead on a jump shot with 2:47 left in the game. Wheeling held the Blue Knights off of the scoreboard for the rest of the night and scored nine-unanswered to complete the comeback victory and improve to 4-0 on the season.
 
After shooting 7-of-27 (26 percent) in the first half, the Cardinals managed to knock down 14-of-23 (61 percent) of their shots in the second stanza.
 
Wheeling held a 38-to-28 advantage on the glass and finished with 12 offensive rebounds.
 
Urbana was led by Jordan Bradley, who finished with 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting.
 
The Cardinals will hit the road for the first time this season on Friday, November 29 when they open up the Kentucky Wesleyan Thanksgiving Classic against the host-Panthers at 1 p.m. inside the Sports Center in Owensboro.