West Liberty, W. Va. – After a wild back and forth game against Seton Hill to open the West Liberty Classic, the Wheeling University Men's Basketball team (0-2, 0-0) returned to action on Saturday. They battled another Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) opponent in Shippensburg as they looked to get momentum on their side. The Cardinals had two different players score in double digits, but it wasn't enough as they fell to the Raiders 85-68.
After Friday night's overtime affair, the Cardinals were looking to use some of that momentum early to overtake the Raiders. Shippensburg got on the board first with a three-pointer by Andrew Recchia, but Wheeling responded as William Gabbert hit a layup and Trey Stoffer added a pair of free throws to put the Cardinals up 4-3 two minutes in. This back and forth would continue throughout the first five minutes of play as The score was tied at 12-12 entering the first media timeout. Gabbert and Stoffer each had four points early on as they led the Cardinals early. Both defenses would hold strong over the next three-minutes before a short 4-0 run put Shippensburg in front 16-12. However, Gabbert was at it again with a big three-pointer that got the Cardinals going again and at the 10 minute mark things were tied at 19-19.
Wheeling would take their second lead of the game when Jerry Saunders Jr. Hit a free throw and Fallou Koite added a three-pointer that put the Cardinals ahead 21-23 at the 9:10 mark of the first half. Shippensburg responded with a 7-0 run that put them up 28-23, but the Cardinals again got a big three, this time from Stoffer to break the run. They tied the game back up at 30-30 before a dunk from Shippensburg's Michael Dunn gave them a slight 32-30 advantage heading into the final media timeout of the half. However, that dunk sent the Raiders on their biggest run of the night, scoring 18 of the final 20 points of the half. The two Cardinal points came courtesy of a dunk from Kevin Coleman Jr., and the Cardinals would enter the locker room trailing by a 48-32 score.
As they came out for the second half, the Cardinals got on the board quickly as a layup and a three-pointer from Marcus Johnson made it a 53-37 affair. The three-pointer would continue to be good for the Cardinals throughout the early part of the half as Caleb Murray added a three at the 16:32 mark and Coleman Jr. added another layup. The Cardinals trailed 58-43 at the first media timeout as the Cardinals looked to fight back. They would slowly chip into the Raider's lead throughout the half and cut what was a 20-point deficit to just 10 as the 10 minute mark ticked by. Trevor Beresford picked up a layup and Sean Ealy hit a jumper and a three-pointer as the score sat at 66-56 in favor of the Raiders with 8:58 left in the contest.
Ealy's three-pointer was the start of a run for the Cardinals as they scored seven of the next nine points and got as close as they had been in the second half at 66-60 with 7:25 to play. Johnson hit a layup to cut the deficit to five before Shippensburg hit the final run of the day to seal the deal. They scored 12 consecutive points to push their lead to 79-62 with 4:10 to play as the Cardinals would have a big hill to climb. Stoffer would score four points over those final four minutes and Koite hit a layup with 22 seconds to go, but that would be it as the Cardinals fell to the Raiders 85-68 to drop to 0-2 during the opening weekend festivities.
Leading the way for the Cardinals was senior Trey Stoffer, who finished with 12 points on the night for his first double digit effort of the season. Stoffer hit double digits twice last season and shot an efficient 57.1% from the floor on the night. The other double digit scorer for the Cardinal was Marcus Johnson, who finished with 11 points while William Gabbert just missed double digits with nine points on the night. Johnson led the defensive effort with nine rebounds in the game while Stoffer passed the ball around efficiently with four assists. The Cardinals played hard on their opening weekend with two tough opponents and look to use the lessons they learn as they head towards conference play.
The Wheeling University Men's Basketball team returns to action on Tuesday, November 14th, when they hit the road to face D'Youville at 7 PM.
