WHEELING, W.Va. (Jan. 29) – The Cardinals had a clean look at the horn, but came up short in a 75-72 loss to West Virginia Wesleyan Wednesday night inside the McDonough Center.
The loss drops the Wheeling University men's basketball team to 6-7 in the Mountain East Conference (MEC), 9-8 overall. Meanwhile, the win draws the Bobcats even with the Cardinals at 6-7 in league play, 7-12 overall.
Wheeling had the ball under its own basket with 3.6 seconds left in the game. Sophomore forward
Emmanuel Ansong (Bordentown, N.J./Canterbury School) leaped above everyone near mid-court to receive the in-bound pass and immediately kicked the ball to a wide-open
Jay Gentry (Milwaukee, Wisc./Brown Deer) on the wing. Gentry got the shot off in plenty of time, but the ball rimmed out and allowed the Bobcats to escape with an important MEC win.
Junior guard
Jarett Haines (Bronx, N.Y./New Rochelle) led the Cardinals with 16 points, while sophomore forward
Bryce Foggin (Naples, Fla./Gulf Coast) scored a career-high 13 points with five rebounds. Junior guard
Jordan Reid (Silver Spring, Md./Albert Einstein) added 12 points, while both freshman forward
John Korte (Watertown, Mass./Watertown) and Ansong chipped in 10 points, apiece.
The Cardinals struggled from the field early in the game. Wheeling converted 1-of-8 to start the game and trailed 21-12 through the first 13 minutes of the game.
The Cardinals' fortunes changed over the final five minutes of the first half. Wheeling went on an 18-8 run, fueled by a trio of three pointers from Foggin, and shot 6-of-7 from the field as a team to take their first lead of the night at 30-29 with 2:12 to play until halftime. Despite the run, a Bobcat basket in the final two minutes allowed Wesleyan to take a 31-30 lead into halftime.
Wheeling opened the second half with six-straight points, including a pair of layups by Ansong, to take a 36-31 advantage two minutes into the period. A Wesleyan layup at the 14-minute mark drew the guests back within three, 44-41, but an 11-1 spurt helped Wheeling build a 55-45 lead with 10:35 left in the game.
The Bobcats answered back with an 11-4 run of their own to make the score 59-56 with 7:07 remaining on the clock. Both teams traded baskets over the next four minutes, before a trey by Gentry and an Ansong dunk helped Wheeling rebuild a 68-60 lead with 3:10 on the clock.
West Virginia Wesleyan locked down defensively and scored the game's next 11 points to take the lead at 71-69 with 10 seconds left in the game. Both teams traded trips to the free-throw line, before Gentry's attempt to tie the game rimmed out as time expired.
Wheeling finished the game shooting 23-of-60 (38 percent), while the Bobcats converted 26-of-56 (46 percent) from the field.
The second half came to a crawl, as both teams were in the bonus before the 10-minute mark. Wesleyan made 16-of-18 at the charity stripe, all in the second half, while Wheeling ended the night making 19-of-21 from the line.
The Bobcats' Luka Petrovic scored 16 points to lead Wesleyan.
The Cardinals will look to end its recent skid on Saturday, February 1 when they return to the McDonough Center to take on Davis & Elkins in a MEC game at 4 p.m.
