GLENVILLE, W.Va. (Jan. 8) – The Wheeling University men's basketball team held on for a 96-92 win at Glenville State Wednesday night inside the Waco Center.
 
The Cardinals improve to 7-4 overall, 4-3 in the Mountain East Conference (MEC). Meanwhile, the Pioneers, who entered the night at the top the MEC standings, fall to 5-2 in league play, 7-4 overall.
 
Four players scored in double figures, led by a team-high 21 points by sophomore forward Emmanuel Ansong (Bordentown, N.J./Canterbury School). Sophomore guard Jay Gentry (Milwaukee, Wisc./Brown Deer) filled up his line with 20 points, six rebounds and four assists. Junior guards Jarett Haines (Bronx, N.Y./New Rochelle) and Jordan Reid (Silver Spring, Md./Albert Einstein) chipped in 13 and 12 points, respectively.
 
The Cardinals opened the game with an 11-2 run through the first three and a half minutes of the contest. Glenville State trimmed the lead to one with eight-straight, before another Wheeling run, including a basket-and-one by freshman forward John Korte (Watertown, Mass./Watertown), re-built the lead to 20-11 with 13:16 left in the first half.
 
The Pioneers rallied back with a 12-2 run to tie the game up at 23 just past the halfway mark of the opening period. After both teams traded baskets to even the game at 29, the Cardinals out-scored Glenville State 17-7 over a four-minute stretch to establish a 46-36 lead with 1:53 to play in the first half. The Pioneers used a traditional three-point play and a basket from long range to eventually slice the Wheeling lead to six, 48-42, at halftime.
 
The Cardinals rebuilt their lead to 13 with seven-straight points to open the second half and force a quick Glenville State timeout less than two minutes into the period. 
 
The Cardinals hovered around a seven-point lead for the next 10 minutes, until a Pioneer trey cut the lead to 74-69 with 8:23 left in the game. Wheeling maintained the lead until another three pointer with 3:18 to play in the game tied the score up at 84-84, erasing what was once a double-digit lead.
 
The game was tied with 1:35 left on the clock when Reid buried a step-back three-point shot to propel Wheeling to an 89-86 lead. 
 
Most of the remaining points in the game were scored at the charity stripe. Glenville State made a pair on its end, before the Cardinals split two shots to make the score 90-88 with a minute left in the game.
 
The Pioneers missed a chance for the lead on its end, allowing Gentry to knock down two shots from the line to give Wheeling a 92-88 advantage with 40 seconds to play.
 
Both teams exchanged trips to the line and Glenville State converted a put-back basket to make the score 94-92 with six seconds on the clock. Cardinal sophomore guard Nathan Meriwether (Indianapolis, Ind./Emmerich Manual) put the game away by sinking two more free throws on the other end to secure the four-point win.
 
The Cardinals carved the Glenville State full-court pressure and converted for 62 points in the paint, many coming on uncontested layups. Wheeling was also credited with 26 fast-break points.
 
The Cardinals shot 37-of-73 (50 percent) and posted a season high for points in a game.
 
Najee Scott led five Pioneers in double figures with 23 points, while MEC leading scorer Phil Bledsoe (23.8 ppg.) finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds in the loss.
 
Wheeling returns to its home court for the first time in nearly a month when it hosts Concord on Saturday, January 11 for a league contest at 4 p.m.