Wheeling, W. Va. - After a slow start on Wednesday night, the Wheeling University Men's Basketball team (6-9, 1-7) was hanging around with Glenville State in the second half on Wednesday. The team made a 46-point second half push, shooting 50% from the floor over the final 20 minutes of play. However, the slow start was too much to overcome as the Cardinals fell 88-72, dropping to 1-7 in Mountain East Conference (MEC) play.
After shooting just 28.13% from the floor, and 23.53% from beyond the arc, in the first half, Head Coach Chris Richardson had to rally his troops for the second half. They took the message to heart, and came out of the locker room on fire, as a Sean Ealy layup got things started, making it a 40-28 game. The Cardinals would go on to score the first nine points of the half to turn a 14-point halftime deficit into just a five point game. Jerry Saunders Jr. Would play big during the run, scoring seven of the nine points and capping things off with the layup. However, a Cardinal comeback wouldn't be easy as Glenville State quickly responded with six straight points of their own to get back to an 11-point lead. The back and forth would be a staple of the second half, with every time the Cardinals began to battle back, they would be quickly answered by a Glenville State run. As the clock ticked past the ten minute mark, Wheeling found themselves trailing 62-50 and looking to gain ground.
The Ealy layup had the Cardinals within striking distance at 59-50, but it would be a Glenville State run that put the game on ice. The Pioneers got a three from Ziri Blackwood that opened it to the 12-point lead, and an 8-0 run had the score at 67-50 two minutes later. S.J. Hutchinson briefly stopped the run with a free throw, and a Caleb Murray three gave the Cardinals some life, but the hill turned out to be too much for the Cardinals to climb. With 6:10 to play, the Pioneers would make it a 20-point game on a Dominiq Penn Layup, signaling Richardson that it was time to turn to his bench. With under five minutes to play, he began subbing in his depth pieces, and they once again battled, taking advantage of the opportunity. They did not allow a Pioneer point over the final 1:56 of play, and Jaylon Jackson added a jumper followed by a Jovan Jovanovic three to round out the scoring, bringing the game to its final score of 88-72.
Leading the effort for the Cardinals was Jerry Saunders jr., who finished with a team-high 12 points on the day. He finished 5-9 (55.5%) from the floor, while adding a 2-3 mark from three-point range to lead the Cardinal offense. Wheeling had two other players finish in double figures, with Sean Ealy and Alex Smith each adding 10 points in the effort. Smith would lead the team with seven assists, while Curtis Harrison IV finished with a season-high eight rebounds to go along with seven points. As a team, the strong second half helped raise their shooting percentage to 39.1% on the night, thanks to hitting 50% of their shots both from the field and from beyond the arc in the second half.
It was Harrison IV, who got his first start since opening weekend, who got things going in the first half, with a tip-in layup 40 seconds into the game. It was the Cardinals who would take the reigns early, with Smith adding a pair of free throws that staked them to a 4-0 advantage. Three-minutes later, the Cardinals extended their lead to 7-2 thanks to a William Gabbert three-pointer and, after Glenville State answered, Smith would have another three that staked the Cardinals to a 10-6 lead. The success continued with Harrison IV and Gabbert both getting in on the action over the next five points, and the Cardinals had a 15-6 lead by the first media timeout. However, the Pioneers didn't stay down for long, scoring nine straight points as they worked back to tie the game at 15-15 with 12:44 to play.
After scoring those 15 points over the first five minutes of play, the Cardinals were held to just 11 over the final 15 minutes of the half. Smith would briefly save the Cardinal's lead with a layup, but the Pioneers just kept on coming and eventually overtook the Cardinals with 10 minutes to go in the half. Tee Harris jr. Would help keep the game close, with a layup and a three-pointer that got the Cardinals back within two at 24-22, but Glenville State's defense would be the most successful force in the half. The Cardinals were outscored 16-4 over the final eight minutes of the half, before heading to the locker room trailing 40-26. Despite the comeback effort, it would end up not being enough as they fell to 1-7 in conference play.
The Wheeling University Men's Basketball team returns to action on Saturday, January 18th, when they hit the road to face Concord with tip-off at 4 PM.
