Wheeling, W. Va. - The Wheeling University Men's Basketball team (2-4, 0-2) continues their heavy early-season road schedule as they open the month of December on Saturday. The Cardinals will head to Buckhannon, West Virginia to take on West Virginia Wesleyan with tip-off scheduled for 4 PM. The Cardinals are looking for their first MEC win of the season as they continue the 2023 portion of their Mountain East Conference (MEC) schedule.
Last time out, the Cardinals played their second home game of the season when they took on Davis & Elkins on Wednesday night. The Cardinals battled back and forth with the Senators throughout the game's first half. The Cardinals had the early advantage, scoring the first seven points of the contest, and held the lead through the game's first 10 minutes of play. However, Davis & Elkins would take the lead back with a 7-2 run and didn't give it back for the rest of the half as they headed into the locker room with a 32-28 advantage. The Cardinal's upped their offensive output in the second half, scoring 32 points, but Davis & Elkins answered with 49 of their own as the Cardinals fell 81-60.
Leading the way for the Cardinals once again was junior Marcus Johnson, who continues to be the top scorer in the MEC. He scored 18 points on the night and nearly had a double-double with eight rebounds to go along with two assists. He had a big day from the free throw line on the day, going 4-4 and adding to his team best 91.2% shooting percentage from the free throw line. Johnson is the defending MEC Men's Basketball player of the Week and leads the conference with 20.8 points per game while sitting second with 125 points behind West Virginia Wesleyan's Dieker Padrino. Johnson looks to continue his success into the weekend as the team looks for their first conference win.
Over the past couple of games, the Cardinals have gotten big contributions from their bench and that continued against Davis & Elkins. Caleb Murray put together his best game of the season with 14 points, while shooting 5-11 from the field. Nine of those 14 points came in the final five minutes of play as Murray led the team with a 4-7 mark from three-point range. The Cardinals have also seen Sean Ealy step up in the Point Guard position with 10 points as he fills in due to injury. The Cardinal's bench accounted for 22 of the team's 60 points on the night and Head Coach Chris Richardson looks to continue to use that depth as the season moves on.
With the 2023 portion of the MEC schedule in full swing, the Cardinals will look to gain some ground over their final three games leading up to the break. Two of their final three opponents sit in the bottom half of the conference, with the only exception being Charleston, who sits tied for the conference lead at 3-0. The Cardinals currently sit 10th in the conference at 0-2, and are leading their Saturday opponent West Virginia Wesleyan by half a game. The Bobcats have allowed an average of 99.0 points per game this season and the Cardinal's offense looks to take advantage as they open December.
The Matchup
The Cardinals and Bobcats are meeting for the 44th time in program history, with Wheeling leading the all-time series at 29-14. The Cardinals have had a higher winning percentage in Buckhannon, West Virginia, going 14-6 in 20 previous meetings. Over the last 10 meetings, the Cardinals are 7-3 and across the all-time series they have averaged 78.56 points per game. The two teams split the 2022-2023 season series and Wheeling looks to keep their winning ways going this season.
In their most recent meeting, the Cardinals picked up a road win against the Bobcat on January 25th, 2023, 82-55. Leading the way for the Cardinals was former Cardinal John Korte, who finished with 21 points and seven rebounds. Former Cardinal Ryan Reasbeck added 15 points to the effort while former Cardinal Andrew Taylor added 13 points in the win.
The Details
Tip-off for Saturday's game is scheduled for 4 PM inside the Rockefeller Center on the campus of West Virginia Wesleyan College. You can watch the game live by clicking HERE or follow along with Live Stats by clicking HERE.
