FROSTBURG, Md. (Feb. 22) –  The Wheeling University's men's basketball team closed the game with eight-unanswered points to pick up a 77-71 victory at Frostburg State Saturday afternoon in a Mountain East Conference (MEC) contest.

The victory improves the Cardinals overall record to 14-10, 11-9 in MEC play. The loss drops the Bobcats MEC mark to 7-13, 10-16 overall. 

Wheeling was led by sophomore forward Emanuel Ansong (Bordentown, N.J./ Canterbury School), who finished with 21 points, eight rebounds, and a block. Junior guard Jordan Reid (Silver Spring, Md./ Albert Einstein) posted 18 points and seven rebounds. Junior guard Jarret Haines (Bronx, N.Y./ New Rochelle) and freshmen forward John Korte (Watertown, Mass./ Watertown) chipped in with 12 and 11 points respectively. Korte posted a season high 11 rebounds for his first-career double-double. 

The Bobcats opened the game on an 11-3 run, before Wheeling surged back with 11-straight points, including a Haines trey, to take a 14-11 lead with 12:23 left in the first half. Both teams exchanged the lead over the next five minutes and the game was tied at 19, when the Cardinals went on another run, scoring 10-straight over the ensuing three minutes to build a 29-19 lead with 4:27 remaining in the half. The Bobcats battled back to slice the Wheeling lead to one at 34-33 near the final minute of the half, but an Ansong dunk before the horn gave the Cardinals a three point lead heading into halftime. 

Wheeling controlled the pace early in the second half and eventually took its largest lead of the second half at 62-53 with 10:31 left in the game. The Bobcats quickly responded with a 11-2 spurt to tie the game up four minutes later, before claiming their first lead of the second half at 71-69 with 2:54 to play in the contest. The Cardinals locked up defensively and did not allow Frostburg State another bucket. Wheeling managed to sink 8-of-10 attempts at the free-throw line during the final three minutes and forced the Bobcats to miss its final five shots from the floor to secure the six-point win.

The Bobcats were led by Daniel Alexander who had a game-high 25 points and also led Frostburg in rebounds with eight. Frostburg posted a better field goal percentage at 44 percent (28-of-64) compared to the 41 percent (22-of-54) performance by the Cardinals.

The Cardinals will travel into Ohio on Wednesday, February 26 to take on Urbana in a MEC game around 7:30 p.m.