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Glenville State Postgame | UVa-Wise Postgame
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By Duane Cochran for MountainEast.org

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Some teams find shooting in the open confines of the Charleston Civic Center to be a challenge.

Wednesday night in the opening round of the annual Mountain East Conference Basketball Tournament it wasn't any problem whatsoever for seventh-seeded Glenville State.

The Pioneers came out hitting on all cylinders offensively and virtually all of their shots as they raced to a 10-point lead 12 minutes into its matchup with 10th-seeded Virginia-Wise and ultimately an 84-66 victory.

The win snapped a three-game skid for the Pioneers and improved them to 12-15 on the year. Glenville will advance and face second-seeded West Liberty (25-3) at noon on Friday in the quarterfinals.

Virginia-Wise, on the other hand, finished its season a with a 9-20 record.

GSC, which led for 38:28 of the game's 40 minutes, connected on 11 of its first 16 field goal attempts Wednesday night, including a 6-of-9 showing from long range as it built a 30-20 lead. After that Wise was able to get within eight twice in the first half, but could never get any closer.

“Something we really tried to focus on tonight was coming out of the gates fast,” said Glenville's Brett Morris, who finished with a game-high 28 points, nine rebounds and four blocks. “We've had a problem here lately coming out and getting down by 10 points and having to fight our way back. So our focus was getting up on them because we think when we do that we can play with anyone.”

GSC cooled off a little down the stretch in the opening half but still held a 41-29 lead at the break. In the second half the Pioneers shot even better (16-of-28, 57.1 percent) and as a result continually pulled away from the Cavaliers, who were only able to connect on 32.4 percent (22-of-68) of their field goal attempts.

“We just didn't make shots tonight,” Cavaliers' coach Blake Mellinger said. “That was the biggest thing. We scored 66 points and in this league that's just not enough to beat most of the teams. In our two games prior to this one with Glenville the scores were in the eighties or nineties and both of those games were more competitive.

“I don't know if it was the environment or if was it being our first game in this place or if it was just one of those nights. Whatever the case, we just didn't shoot the ball as well as we had hoped.”

Glenville, which had 20 assists on its 30 made field goals, also got 17 points and 11 rebounds from Terry Davis, Jr. and 11 points from Jalon Plummer. Eight of the Pioneers who played double digit minutes in the game scored.

“I'm very proud of how our guys fought tonight,” GSC coach Stephen Dye said. “We've been struggling finishing games recently and getting defensive stops. I'm proud we were able to hold them to 66 points on 32 percent shooting from the field.

“That's a credit to our guys. They really competed out there and made them work for it. Our focus the last two days was on effort, effort and effort and they performed tonight.”

Taiwo Badmus almost single-handedly kept the Cavaliers in the game. He scored 22 of his team's first 44 points and grabbed 10 of its first 22 rebounds. He finished with 25 points and 12 boards.

“They were more aggressive than us and when they started hitting shots and we were missing them it gave them the momentum,” Badmus said. “We had to play from behind all night.”

Michal Seals was the only other Cavalier player to finish in double figures with 16 points.

Glenville's next opponent, No. 11 West Liberty, won both meetings with the Pioneers during the regular season, but both were close games. The Hilltoppers won a 108-105 overtime game in Glenville onJan. 8 and claimed a 93-82 victory at West Liberty on Feb. 18.



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Charleston Postgame | Urbana Postgame
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A key 9-3 run for Charleston to close the first half propelled the Golden Eagles to a 76-62 win over Urbana on Wednesday night in the first round of the MEC Men’s Basketball Tournament.
 
“I thought we played really hard and really well defensively,” said head coach Dwaine Osborne. “I thought our defense was the most consistent part of the game for us. I’m thankful to get a win, but we have to do a better job on Friday in a lot of areas.”
 
UC advances to take on top-ranked Fairmont State on Friday night at 6 p.m.
 
Charleston (15-14) held Urbana (12-17) to a season-low in points and field goal percentage.
 
“It was a tough one for us,” Urbana head coach Rob Summers said. “We came out ready, we just couldn’t put the ball in the hole. The offensive struggles that we had tonight, we just couldn’t over come that.”
 
The Golden Eagles shot 49 percent from the field in the win. Elliott Cole poured in 28 points for UC, and Justin Coleman added a double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds. Keir Anderson notched 15 points and Jordan Smith came off the bench to chip in 11.
 
Urbana (12-17) started the game strong and was able to hold a small lead for most of the first half. Charleston (15-14) remained close and was able to take its first lead of the game at 20-19 after a Jordan Smith layup with just under six minutes to play. The Golden Eagles scored seven of the game’s next nine points to surge ahead 27-21, and then continued to build its lead to double figures at 36-26 just before the break.
 
The Blue Knights could not get shots to fall in the second half to try and make a run at the Golden Eagles. Urbana stayed within striking distance in the early portion of the second half, but a 13-3 run in with just under 15 minutes left put the game away.
 
Jahmere Howze led Urbana with 18 points and a career-high 18 rebounds. DeQuan Abrom had 14 points and nine rebounds, and Carlas Jackson scored 12 points.