FAIRMONT, W.Va. (Jan. 18) – A late run dealt the Wheeling University men's basketball team a 93-81 loss at Fairmont State Saturday evening inside the Joe Retton Arena.
 
The Cardinals drop to 9-5 overall, 6-4 in the Mountain East Conference (MEC). Meanwhile, the Falcons draw even with Wheeling at 6-4 in league play, 11-4 overall.
 
Junior guard Jordan Reid (Silver Spring, Md./Albert Einstein) posted his second double-double in as many games with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Junior guard Jarett Haines (Bronx, N.Y./New Rochelle) led the team with 23 points and added five rebounds, three steals, two blocks and an assist. Sophomore guard Jay Gentry and junior forward Geron Braithwaite (Gaithersburg, Md./Gaithersburg) each finished in double figures with 12 points apiece.
 
Fairmont State opened up a 9-5 lead through the first four minutes of the contest. Wheeling answered back with six-straight points to take a 11-9 lead and both teams traded the lead back and forth over the next 12 minutes. 
 
The Falcons opened up their largest lead of the half at 33-28 with 3:23 left until the break. Wheeling managed to keep the Falcons close and a Haines trey in the final minute helped the Cardinals enter halftime trailing 40-39.
 
Fairmont State maintained the lead through the first five minutes of the second half. Wheeling trailed 53-50 with 15:20 left in the game when it went on a 9-2 run over the next three minutes to take a 59-55 lead and force a Fairmont State timeout with 12:47 remaining in the contest.
 
The Falcons reclaimed the lead on a basket-and-one by Dale Bonner at the 9:23-mark of the second half and opened up a 69-65 advantage on another and-one by Kenzie Melko-Marshall with 7:42 left on the clock.
 
Fairmont State never looked back and out-scored 24-to-16 down the stretch to deal Wheeling the loss.
 
The Falcons took advantage of the Cardinals foul situation in the second half. Fairmont State was in the bonus with over 12 minutes to go in the game and knocked down 22-of-23 from the charity stripe in the second half alone. The Falcons were 25-of-26 for the game at the line.
 
A trio of Falcons scored at least 20 points, including Melko-Marshall, who posted 23 and eight boards.
 
Braithwaite was playing in his first game of the season as a Cardinal after transferring from Division II Clafin over the holiday break.
 
Leading rebounder and second leading scorer Emmanuel Ansong (Bordentown, N.J./Canterbury School) (16.1 ppg., 7.3 rpg.) did not play in the game.

The Cardinals will look to get back on track on Wednesday, January 22 when they travel to South Euclid, Ohio to take on Notre Dame College around 7:30 p.m.