Fairmont, W.V. - The Wheeling Men's Basketball team (14-7, 9-5) heads down to Fairmont for a rematch with the Fairmont State Falcons (19-3, 13-2). The Cardinals clinched a playoff spot with their win against Davis & Elkins on Saturday. While clinching the playoffs is a marker for the team Head Coach Chris Richardson says the team does not care about that and the job is far from finished.
Ayden Goll led the way in Wheeling's win against Davis & Elkins. Goll finished with 24 points and 5 assists going 8-8 from the line in 38 minutes played. Goll is now 3rd in the MEC in points per game and assists per game. He is also 5th in the MEC in minutes played. Curtis Harrison IV put together a well rounded game scoring 14 points on 6-7 shooting from the field. He corralled a team high 7 rebounds including 5 on the offensive end. Harrison is no stranger to shooting efficiency, he is shooting .662 from the field on the season and has shot over .500 in 17 of 21 games this season.
Both games against the Senators this season were won by Wheeling in the 2nd half. The first game at home was a shootout, tied 48-48 at half. Wheeling then won the 2nd half by 8. This time in Elkins, Wheeling was down by 6 at the half but a 49 point second half propelled them to a 83-74 victory. The second half comeback was based around 3 point shooting. Wheeling was 3-18 from 3 in the first half but 7-12 in the second half while holding D & E to only 1 made three point shot in the 2nd half.
On January 7th Fairmont State came to the Alma Grace McDonough Center and scraped one out with a 74-71 victory. This game was Fairmont State's smallest margin of victory all season. This looks to be another tightly contested game with both teams being top 3 in the MEC. Fairmont State is on a 10 game win streak and hasn't lost in over a month. Wheeling is on a 3 game win streak of their own with an average margin of victory of 15 in those 3 games. Wheeling will be Fairmont States 3rd game in 5 days due to their matchup against Concord being rescheduled from January 28th.
The game is scheduled for Wednesday February 11th at 7:30 PM. You can watch by clicking HERE and follow along with live stats HERE.
