Before basketball got underway, the Cardinals welcomed Highsmith back to the Alma Grace McDonough Center for his jersey retirement. It was a day of celebration with Highsmith's parents, agent Jerry Dianis, former coach Danny Sancomb, and teammates from the 2017/2018 MEC Championship team came together in celebration. When Highsmith came to the podium, he talked about how Wheeling felt like home and offered thank yous to everyone who has helped him along his journey to the Miami Heat. The ceremony concluded with the unveiling of the banner that will hang inside the Alma Grace McDonough Center for years to come, cementing Highsmith's place in program history forever.
 

When the ceremony concluded, it was time for tip-off and the Cardinals came out looking to honor Highsmith on the court. The teams would trade the first eight points of the contest, and Frostburg State would take their first lead at 6-4 at the 16:12 mark. Sean Ealy would hit a layup to tie the game at 6-6 and a Marcus Johnson three would catapult the Cardinals to a 7-0 run. By the media timeout, the Cardinals were back out in front 11-6 and Johnson would keep the run going with a pair of free throws that made it 13-6 Cardinals. The Bobcats tried to battle back with four straight points, to bring the score to 13-10, but William Gabbert would hit a layup that started another Cardinal run.

Caleb Murray would come off the bench with his first three of the night and with 10 minutes to go the Cardinals were ahead 18-10.

Those two shots would be the start of a 13-1 Cardinal run that pushed the Cardinal lead to 27-11. Jerry Saunders would lead the way with six points during this swing and two big three pointers got the Cardinals going. After a Frostburg State jumper from Zane McCarty broke the run with a jumper, the Cardinals added a Johnson three to make it a 30-13 advantage by the final media timeout. Tee Harris hit a pair of free throws to keep the run going and a Sean Ealy three with 2:55 to go in the half made it a 35-14 Cardinal advantage. The Cardinals would end up reaching the 40-point mark in the first half and by the break it was a 40-22 Cardinal advantage. Wheeling was efficient from the floor shooting just over 42%, but they would only get better as the night went on.
 

 The second half featured a heavy dose of the three ball, with the Cardinals hitting nine of their 15 attempts during the final 20 minutes of play. It was one of these threes that got things started as Harris hit a three-pointer and Ealy added a fast break layup as Wheeling scored the first five points of the new half. By the first media timeout, the Cardinals had built a 54-29 lead as the offense led the way. As the half went on, the Cardinals continued to extend their lead, getting as far ahead as 71-36 with 12:03 to go, Head Coach Chris Richardson had begun to dip into his depth, but there was one more milestone that needed to be hit. Entering play , Marcus Johnson needed 19 points to reach 1,000 points in his career and, with three minutes to go he needed just three points to hit that mark.
 

A big steal by Korey Beckett would get the ball back for the Cardinals and Johnson would bring it up the court. He pulled up just outside the arc and sent one soaring into the hoop to reach the 1,000 point make in his Wheeling Career. Richardson would call a timeout following the shot and allowed Johnson to exit to a standing ovation. Johnson became the 50th player in program history to reach the mark and was one of the quickest to reach the mark, doing it in 51 games. The final two and a half minutes would see a three-pointer from Fallou Koite and a dunk from Kevin Coleman Jr that rounded out the day. The Cardinals would score 48 points in that second half and went on to win 88-62.
 

Johnson's 1,000th career point would tie him with teammate Sean Ealy for the team lead, with both putting up 19 points on the night. Ealy would be the more efficient of the two, shooting 7-10 (70%) from the floor, including a 4-6 mark from three-point range. Johnson would go 6-18 from the floor on the night and added three three-pointers of his own to round out the night. Three other Cardinals would hit double figures on the night, with Tee Harris Jr (11), Jerry Saunders (10), and S.J. Hutchinson (10) all finishing in double figures. Harris would also lead the defensive effort with 10 rebounds, as he picked up a double-double while Hutchinson led the passing game with five assists on the night.
 

The Wheeling University Men's Basketball team returns to action on Wednesday, February 21st, when they hit the road to face Concord at 7:30 PM.