Wheeling, W. Va. – March Madness is all about crazy games and wild finishes and it was no differenet inside WesBanco Arena on Wednesday night for the first round of the 2024 Mountain East Conference (MEC) Men's Basketball Tournament. The #9 seeded Wheeling Men's Basketball team battled #8 seeded Notre Dame College in a game that would come down to the final seconds of overtime. Unfortunately, the Cardinals would end up on the wrong end of a 100-98 score as the bowed out in the first round.

  With five minutes to go in regulation, the Cardinals and Falcons were tied at 80-80 as the back and forth continued. Both defenses were holding strong over the next four minutes and the score sat at 82-82 with under two minutes to play. The Cardinals would look to push it to a three-point game as Sean Ealy chucked one up from the corner, and Tee Harris Jr was there to tip in the rebound and the Cardinals would take an 84-82 lead. Notre Dame College would put up the next four points and led 86-84, but a foul with 29 seconds to go brought Alex Smith to the free throw line for the two biggest free throw shots of the day. Smith would nail both to tie the game at 86-86. The Cardinals would need one more stop and the defense came through as Harris and Marcus Johnson swatted the ball away to send the game to overtime.

It would be the Cardinal's first overtime game of the season and the Cardinals would win the opening tip-off. Notre Dame College would end up getting the first points of the overtime, going 1-2 from the free throw line, but the lead quickly changed as Harris drove to the hoop to complete the layup on the next possession. It was an 88-87 Cardinal lead and a basket by Ealy and a three-point play from Johnson kept the Cardinals ahead as they built a 93-90 lead with 2:38 to go. The extended that lead to 98-94 with 54 seconds to go, but a six-point Falcon swing over the next 50 seconds flipped the score to 100-98, giving the Cardinals four seconds to respond. Johnson would take the inbound and quickly got into three-point range, but the ball would hit off the rim and the Cardinals would fall by that 100-98 score.

It was a big offensive day all around for the Cardinals, with all five of their starters finishing in double figures on the night. Leading the way were Marcus Johnson and Sean Ealy, who each finished with 24 points on the night. Johnson was the Cardinals best free throw shooter on the day, going a perfect 7-7, while Ealy had the three-point shot working throughout the night, going 4-8 from beyond the arc. The Cardinal's most efficient shooter was Alex Smith, who went 5-5 from the floor on his way to a career-best 13 point effort, while Tee Harris (12) and S.J. Hutchinson (10) would each get to double figures on the night. The defensive effort was led by a trio of Cardinals, with Johnson, Harris, and Smith each finishing with eight rebounds, while Ealy led the passing game with seven assists on the night.

After the game, Head Coach Chris Richardson talked about what a great March Madness game it was, but unfortunately his team came out on the wrong end.

"Great college basketball game, great March Madness game and as we talked about with our team after the game, we all watch these and we love being a part of it," said Richardson. "You watch these games and the crazy finishes, the stuff that only seems to happen in this month and tonight we were unfortunately on the wrong end of it."

The first half was just as back and forth as the finish, after Notre Dame College won the opening jump ball. They took control early scoring the first bucket of the day before Wheeling got on the board. Alex Smith, who caused a turnover on the first possession, would get the Cardinals on the board with a layup, and the three-ball would keep them there. S.J. Hutchinson would follow with the three-ball and the Cardinals would go on a 9-0 run to take a 9-2 lead at the 16:43 mark. After a short break in the run by Notre Dame College, Tee Harris got the Cardinals going again with a three-point play that pushed the lead to 12-4. Notre Dame College pushed the line, getting back to a 17-12 game, but a layup from Smith and a three-pointer from Sean Ealy made it a 22-12 Cardinal advantage heading into the media timeout.

Ealy had the three-pointer working throughout the first half and the Cardinals built their biggest lead of the day at 27-16 as the clock ticked towards the 10 minute mark. Kobe Tigney would keep it a 10-point game with a layup that made it 29-19 at the nine minute mark, but as was the case throughout the night, the Falcons slowly battled back. A three-pointer at the 6:23 mark of the half by Joshua Dames got the Falcons to within six points at 38-32 and the Cardinals would get another spark. This time, it was in the form of a William Gabbert three and the Cardinals broke the run to make it 41-32. The Falcons just kept coming throughout the half and pushed the deficit to just two as the Cardinals led 50-48 with 1:06 to go in the first half. Ealy would draw a foul before the half was out and nailed both free throws to send Wheeling into the locker room up 52-48.

As they came out of the halftime break, the Cardinals were once again hitting from long range as Johnson and Ealy each hit three-pointers to make it a 60-52 Cardinal advantage. Wheeling shot an efficient 58.6% from the floor in the first half and that success continued into the early portion of the second half. However, the game of runs continued and the Falcons cut the Wheeling advantage to 65-63 and the lead would remain at two for the next six minutes as Wheeling led 67-65 with 14:05 to play. Their would be eight lead changes down those final 14 minutes of play, with neither team holding more than a three-point lead during that span. The Cardinals got the slight upper hand heading into the final four and a half minutes, leading into the final push to overtime. The Cardinals were knocked out in the first round for the second consecutive season and look to continue their growth into the off-season.

The Wheeling University Men's Basketball team now heads into the off-season as they look to come back stronger for the 2024-25 season.