Wheeling, W. Va. - After getting a rare weekend off during the season, the Wheeling University Men's Basketball team (3-6, 2-3) returns to action on Tuesday when they go on the road to face Slippery Rock at 6 PM. The men wrap up the 2021 portion of their schedule with back-to-back non-conference games as they look to get momentum back on their side before restarting their schedule in 2022 with Mountain East Conference (MEC) play.
Close games have been the MO for the Cardinals this season, and that was the case once again when they took on West Virginia State last Wednesday. After leading for most of the first half, the Yellow Jackets took the lead seven minutes before the half and ran with it. Wheeling found themselves down 60-51 with eight and a half minutes to play but battled back to make it a two-point game with two minutes to play. The two teams would end up going bucket for bucket with each other, but Wheeling just had too much of a lead to overcome and fell 67-64 to drop to 2-3 in MEC play.
Leading the way for the Cardinals offense once again was senior Jordan Reid as the 1,000-point mark creeps closer and closer to reality. Reid just missed hitting the mark on his home court, scoring 19 points in the game, and falling eight points short of 1,000. Fellow senior Jay Gentry finished right behind him with 16 points as three different Cardinal players finished the day with double-digit efforts. For Gentry, it was a season-best effort for the Guard as he is currently on his own chase for that 1,000-point mark but needs 225 points to make it a reality.
For the second game in a row, the Cardinals had a player finish with a double-double, but this time it was senior Jarett Haines, who picked up his second double-double of the season. He tied his season-high with 10 rebounds and put up 11 points to complete the effort. Senior John Korte also finished the game with double-digit rebounds, grabbing 10 boards while falling just one point shy of getting a double-double of his own on the day. The Cardinals did an excellent job of spreading the ball around but just could not find that extra basket they needed to push them over the top.
The loss dropped Wheeling down into a three-way tie for seventh place as the 2021 portion of their conference play is now in the books. They sit at 2-3 and are tied with Alderson Broaddus and Frostburg State for that seventh-place spot. They sit 3.5 games behind first-place Fairmont State and face an important stretch when they resume conference play in 2022. Their first two games are against the team directly above and directly below them in the standings before they face the conference-leading Falcons. The Cardinals look to gain some momentum in their non-conference games so they can start 2022 on a hot streak.
The Matchup
Wheeling and Slippery Rock have not met up very frequently in the two teams' history, with only two games between the two teams dating back to the 2004 season. Wheeling has won both of those games and is averaging 71.5 points per game against The Rock. This will be the first time the two teams meet up in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania ever, and it will be the first game between the two teams since the beginning of the 2016-2017 season.
That game was played on neutral territory in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, in a game that Wheeling won 71-53. After scoring 31 first-half points, Wheeling used a 40-point second half to secure the win and begin their season 1-0. Former Cardinal Haywood Highsmith led a Cardinal attack that saw three different players finish in double-digits. Haywood scored 23 points in the game while also leading the defense with nine rebounds.
The Details
Tip-off for Tuesday night's game is scheduled for 6 PM on the campus of Slippery Rock University. You can watch the game live by clicking HERE or follow along with live stats by clicking HERE.
