WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. (Feb. 10) – Despite a strong first half, the Wheeling University men's basketball team suffered a 119-76 loss at No. 23 West Liberty Wednesday night inside the ASRC.
The loss drops the Cardinals to 2-6 overall, while the Hilltoppers improve to 8-3 on the season.
Senior guard
Jordan Reid (Silver Spring, Md./Albert Einstein) finished with a team-high 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Junior guard
Jay Gentry (Milwaukee, Wisc./Brown Deer) finished with 14 points, while senior guard
Jarett Haines (Bronx, N.Y./New Rochelle) chipped in 13 in the loss.
The Cardinals looked good early in the game. Wheeling opened up a 12-4 lead three minutes into the contest and forced a quick timeout by the Hilltoppers.
West Liberty countered with 10-straight points to take the lead, but the Cardinals answered with five-straight of their own and held a 17-14 advantage with 12:49 left in the first half.
The Hilltoppers went on another run and built a 34-25 lead with six minutes to play until halftime. The Cardinals closed the gap back down to 38-36 with the help of treys by both Gentry and Reid with 3:34 remaining in the first half. West Liberty got its lead back to as many as nine, before Wheeling made it a 51-45 score at halftime.
The Cardinals shot 15-of-27 (55 percent) in the first half and converted 7-of-11 (63 percent) from long range.
Wheeling cooled off in the second half and the Hilltoppers got hot. West Liberty out-scored the Cardinals 24-8 in the first five minutes of the second stanza and never looked back. Wheeling got the game back to within 16, 74-58, with 14 minutes left in the game, but the surging Hilltoppers didn't let it get any closer.
West Liberty shot 46 of 85 (54 percent) from the field in the contest, including a scorching 24 of 39 (62 percent) in the second half alone. The Hilltoppers converted 13 of 28 (46 percent) from long range on the evening.
A total of seven players scored in double figures, led by Patrick Robinson with 26 points.
The Cardinals will look to get back on track on Saturday, February 13 when they travel to take on Fairmont State at 4:30 p.m.
