Wheeling, W. Va. - Over the final two weeks of the regular season, the Wheeling University Men's Basketball team (8-16, 7-11) will get a lot of time competing in front of their home fans. They kick off that string of home games on Wednesday night when they host #10 Fairmont State at 7:30 pm. It will be the second time these two teams have met this season and Wheeling is hoping to even up the season series.

Last time the Cardinals took the court they were involved in an offensive shootout with Glenville State, but fell 96-90. The Cardinals had to deal with several factors, including a two and a half hour power delay, but were able to hang with the high-powered Pioneer's offense. It came down to the final few minutes of the game, but Wheeling just didn't have enough in the tank and took a six-point loss. The Cardinals shot a healthy 50% from the floor and 41.7% from beyond the arc and look to bring that sharpshooting into Wednesday night's game.

Leading the day with a season-best effort was senior guard Jarett Haines, who put up 35 points in the win. Haines has come to life over his last two games, putting up a combined 63 points, and earned himself the Mountain East Conference's (MEC) co-Men's Basketball Player of the Week. He is averaging 18.5 points per game this season, second only to teammate Jordan Reid who is averaging 19.5 points per game. After dealing with some injury troubles over the past couple of weeks, Haines has turned things around and gotten back to being one of the top scorers on the team.

The other 30+ scoring effort was produced by Reid, who finished with 30 points falling one point shy of his season high. It is the second time that Reid has gone over the 30-point mark in a game this season coming off an injury that sidelined him against Concord. Wheeling finished the night with three players finishing in double digits as Andrew Taylor rounded out the effort with 14 points. Senior Jay Gentry led the defensive effort with six rebounds in the game but was unable to get on the board.

As the MEC regular season heads into its final two weeks of regular season play, all eyes are on WesBanco Arena March 2nd through March 6th. As it stands right now, Wheeling sits in eighth place in the MEC, one game behind Alderson Broaddus and Concord. It is a three-way battle for that sixth and final first round bye and Wheeling still has one game remaining against Alderson Broaddus on their home court. Both teams have four games remaining and Concord owns the tiebreaker over Wheeling. It is going to come down to the wire, but Wheeling looks to just keep winning as the season moves forward.

The History

The Cardinals and Falcons will be meeting for the 49th time in team history and the second time this season. Fairmont State has the advantage in the all-time matchup going 32-16 against the Cardinals, however, when the two teams play in Wheeling, the Cardinals have gone 9-13 in those games. The Cardinals are looking for their first win against Fairmont State since January 24th, 2018 when they beat them 88-82 in the Alma Grace McDonough Center.

In their first game of the season, Wheeling fell on the road to Fairmont State 95-84 in a game that saw both offenses firing on all cylinders. Sophomore Andrew Taylor had a big day in that game, scoring a season-high 19 points in the game. Former Cardinal Tre Massey also added 19 points on the day as Wheeling fell just short.

The Details

Tip-off for Wednesday night's game is scheduled for 7:30 inside the Alma Grace McDonough Center. You can watch the game live by clicking HERE or follow along with Live Stats by clicking HERE.