Wheeling, W. Va. - With February beginning, the final four-week push to the Mountain East Conference (MEC) tournament is on as Men's Basketball teams across the conference make their push for WesBanco Arena. The Wheeling University Men's Basketball team (5-14, 3-11) begin that stretch run on Wednesday when they hit the road to face Charleston with tip-off at 7:30 pm. The Cardinals have won two of their last three games entering the month and are looking to keep their momentum going into February.
Last time out was the only loss that the Cardinals have taken during that three-game stretch as they fell to Davis & Elkins 90-81. After battling to a 14-14 score over the first six minutes of play, the Senator's offense would kick in, outscoring Wheeling 26-4 over the next 11 minutes to bring the score to 40-18. Wheeling had some work to do, and they were able to battle back and cut that deficit to 14-points by the halftime break. Wheeling's offense soared over the final 20 minutes of play, outscoring the Golden Eagles 47-42 during that stretch and having it come down to the final minutes of play. They got to within eight points with just over a minute to play, but it wasn't enough as the Cardinals fell 90-81 and dropped to 3-11 in conference play.
The Cardinals have been getting production from some of their youngest players off the bench recently, and this time around it was freshman Caleb Murray who stepped up. Murray set a new career-high with 18 points on the night as he played a career-high 19 minutes on the floor. After going 3-3 from the arc at the end of the West Virginia Wesleyan game, Murray was once again strong from long range, shooting 36.3% from beyond the arc. He is shooting 50% from three-point range over his last two games and is playing his way into the Cardinal's offensive rotation for the rest of the season.
After scoring just three points against West Virginia Wesleyan, Marcus Johnson got back into his groove against Davis & Elkins, leading the way with 23 points in the contest. Johnson has been a consistent scorer for the Cardinals all season and has averaged 16.8 points per game over his last five contests. He picked up his third double double of the season and looks for continued success on the floor for the Cardinals. John Korte was held to just nine points in the game, but continued his strong defensive work, tying for the team lead with 10 rebounds. He enters February on the race for 1,000 career points as he looks to nail the feat before the season ends.
As the Cardinals enter February, they are currently in sole possession of the #10 seed in the MEC Tournament field. They hold a one-game lead over both West Virginia Wesleyan and Frostburg State and are just two games back of getting up to as high as the #8 seed. The Cardinals have a chance to affect seeding over the next two weeks, with three of their four games coming against teams in the top six of the conference as they fight to climb the standings. Wheeling will have to be good on the road, with two of those three games being road contests and just three home games total during February.
The Matchup
Wednesday night will mark the 40th time the two teams have matched up in program history as they wrap-up their 2022-23 regular season schedule. Charleston has a slight advantage in the all-time series, sitting at 20-19, but when the teams meet in Charleston Wheeling has that advantage with a 9-8 record in 17 all-time meetings. Wheeling has dropped the last five meetings against Charleston and is looking to flip the script this time around.
In their first meeting of the season, it came down to the game's final seconds as Charleston beat Wheeling 72-70. John Korte led the way in that first meeting, scoring 25 points, while Brent Price added 14 points on the day. S.J. Hutchinson would provide a strong presence off the bench too, putting up 11 points to round out the Cardinal's double-digit scorers.
The Details
Tip-off for Wednesday night's game is scheduled for 7:30 pm inside the Werhle Innovation Center on the campus of The University of Charleston. You can watch the game live by clicking HERE or follow along with Live Stats by clicking HERE.
