Wheeling, W. Va. - The Mountain East Conference (MEC) schedule took the Wheeling University Men's Basketball team (4-3, 1-1) to Institute, West Virginia on Wednesday night. The Cardinals entered their first full week of play as they battled West Virginia State, and took their first conference loss of the season falling 92-81. Wheeling would shoot 50% (18-36) from the floor and outscored the Yellow Jackets 49-43 over the final 20 minutes, but it wasn't enough as the Cardinal's MEC record evened at 1-1.
After going back and forth over the first two minutes of play, Caleb Murray would get the first run of the night going after hitting a pair of free throws. Wheeling would score seven points over the next minute, with an Ayden Goll three-pointer putting the Cardinals up 9-4 three minutes into the game. The Yellow Jackets broke the run with a pair of free throwsand it would be two minutes before a Murray jumper sent the game into the first media timeout with the score sitting at 11-7. West Virginia State would come out of that break on a short 4-0 run that tied the game at 11-11, but Tee Harris Jr. would keep the Cardinals in front with a layup. West Virginia State would answer with a three, but Goll added his second three of the game and the lead would change hands three times over the next three minutes. It would be a three-point play from West Virginia State's Ishmael Smith that gave the Yellow Jackets their biggest lead so far at 21-18 with 10 minutes to go in the first half.
Alex Smith would break the Yellow Jacket momentum with a layup, and Jerry Saunders Jr. would keep the deficit at three with a layup. However, a three-pointer from West Virginia State's Norris Bourne Jr made it a five-point game. The teams would go back and forth over the next five minutes, with the Cardinals remaining within seven points of West Virginia State. A layup by Harris sent the Cardinals into the five-minute media with the Cardinals trailing 35-30. Coming out of the media timeout, West Virginia State added on with a 5-0 run and with 2:32 to go before half they had extended their lead to 40-30. Goll would come to the free throw line to break the run with a pair of shots, but that would be Wheeling's final points of the half. The Yellow Jackets would finish the half with a 9-0 run and the Cardinals would go into the half trailing 49-32. After shooting 35.28% (12-34) from the floor in the first half, the Cardinals were looking to make the proper adjustments to see the shots into the net in the second half.
The Cardinal defense got things going, creating a turnover on West Virginia State's first possession of the half and Caleb Murray capitalized with a layup to break the run. Gull would answer with a three-pointer and Murray added a second layup that cut the deficit to 14 with 17:42 to play. As the half went on, West Virginia State would continue adding on to their lead and by the media timeout, a three-pointer by Andrew Shull would have them up 65-43. Saunders Jr would come to the line for a pair of free throws and Kris English hit his first three of the day to get the deficit back to 67-49 but another deep ball from the Yellow Jacket's Camren Wilkes with 10:54 to go would make it a 72-49 game. DJ Wingfield would get the Cardinals back on track with a free throw, starting what was a Cardinal resurgence thanks to guys coming in off the bench.
As the 10-minute mark ticked by, English would add another jumper and a coast-to-coast steal from Jalen Wenger would make it a 74-56 game with 8:39 to go. Wenger followed with a three-pointer on the next possession and the Cardinals were off on a 9-2 run that got them back to within 74-61. English would play a big role for the Cardinals battling back in the game, scoring seven points over the next five minutes and with five minutes to go, it was an 84-70 game. Coming out of the media timeout, Harris would hit a three-pointer that got the Cardinals going again and he leaded the team on a 7-0 run. Wingfield would cap the run with a layup and the Cardinals were within seven-points of the Yellow Jackets with 3:12 to play. However, it was an 8-0 West Virginia State run that brought the game to a close and, despite layups by Wingfield and English in the final minute of play, the Cardinals would fall 92-81 for their first MEC loss of the season.
Leading the effort for the Cardinals was Kris English, who helped the Cardinals through their second half resurgence with a season-high 16 points. He would end up going 5-9 (55.5%) from the floor and 5-7 (71.4%) from the charity Stripe, while scoring 14 of those 16 points in the second half. He was one of four Cardinals to hit double figures on the day, with Ayden Goll finishing right behind him with 15 points, while going a team-best 3-6 (50%) from three-point range. DJ Wingfield set a career-high with 11 points, while Tee Harris Jr. finished with 11 points to round out the double digit scorers. Harris would also lead the way with six rebounds, while Alex Smith led the team with three assists.
The Wheeling University Men's Basketball team returns to action on Saturday, December 13th, when they host The University of Charleston with tip-off at 4 PM.
