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West Liberty Postgame | Glenville State Postgame
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By Duane Cochran for MountainEast.org

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Second-seeded West Liberty outscored seventh-seeded Glenville State 10-2 in the final 2:14, including 6-2 over the course of the last 1:20 to pull out a thrilling 75-71 victory over the Pioneers in the quarterfinals of the annual Mountain East Conference Basketball Tournament here Friday afternoon at the Charleston Civic Center.

The victory improved the No. 11 Hilltoppers to 26-3 overall and puts them in Saturday's semifinals at 8:15 p.m. against the winner of third-seeded Wheeling Jesuit and sixth-seeded West Virginia Wesleyan.

Glenville State finished its season with a 12-16 record.

“If ever there was a survive and advance it was today,” veteran West Liberty coach Jim Crutchfield said. “It's about Glenville. They have a knack for playing us. It's their personnel and the way it lays out. They have a lot of good ball handlers, they're guard-oriented and we have a hard time getting the ball out of their hands. They spread us out.

“It's hard to get into a rhythm against them and that's because they're well coached. I never thought we got in a rhythm today, but the bottom line is when the game was over we had more points than them. It didn't feel like it at times, but when I looked at the board at the end it was there.”

The entertaining game featured five lead changes, five ties and neither team led by more than eight. GSC held the lead in the game for 25:31 and was nursing a four-point, 69-65, advantage when the Pioneers' Brett Morris blocked Dan Monteroso's shot. Monteroso, however, controlled the offensive rebound and found Devin Hoehn open on the perimeter and he buried a 3-pointer which ignited the Hilltoppers' comeback.

“You need to have at least a seven or eight point lead late when you play West Liberty because they can score so quickly,” GSC coach Stephen Dye said. “They're used to big games. They've played for a national championship so the tradition carries itself. They've won big games so you need that seven, eight or 10-point cushion just so you don't get in the situation like we did today. We learned that the hard way.”

Monteroso, who led West Liberty with 22 points and three steals, buried a 3-pointer with 1:19 to play to give his team the lead for good at 72-69. At the other end Morris drove for a layup with 1:02left to make it 72-71 and on West Liberty's next possession David Dennis' driving layup attempt wouldn't fall and Morris cleared the rebound with 35 seconds showing on the clock. On the Glenville possession the Pioneers got the ball to Morris inside and he backed down on West Liberty's Zac Grossenbacher but got his shot blocked by Grossenbacher, who controlled the rebound and was fouled. He made one of two free throw attempts to make it 73-71 with 12.4 seconds left to still leave the door open for GSC.

“I always try to play as hard as I can to help the team win,” said Grossenbacher, who finished with 12 points, a game-high 14 rebounds and four blocks. “You've got to forget about the last play and make the next play to help put the team in the right position to win. At this point everything matters so you've got to take advantage of it.”

On Glenville's next-to-last possession Morris, who finished with 14 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks, drove the lane for a potential tying layup, but was stripped of the ball by Dennis, who controlled it and was fouled with 2.8 seconds to play. He made both free throws to seal the win for the Hilltoppers.

"It's tough,” Morris said. “Against a big team like West Liberty in a big-time game I can't expect to get that call (on Grossenbacher's block). Whether it was a foul or not I've got to trust my teammates. He might have gotten me and he might not have. It was just one of those plays that you have to fight through. We fought all day as a team, but just came up short.”

Glenville was led offensively in the game by Terry Davis, Jr., who finished with a game-high 23 points. Jon Dunmyer added 12 points for the Pioneers, who lost three games this season to the Hilltoppers by a combined total of 18 points.

West Liberty got 15 points and seven rebounds from Clay Guillozet and 12 points from both Hoehn and Dennis, who also had six assists in the victory.

With the win the Hilltoppers have reached the semifinals of the MEC Tournament for the fourth consecutive season. West Liberty, however, hasn't advanced to the championship game since the first MEC Tournament in 2014 and has never won a Mountain East Conference Tournament title.



Box Score
Wheeling Jesuit Postgame | West Virginia Wesleyan Postgame
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By Duane Cochran for MountainEast.org

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Third-seeded Wheeling Jesuit started the second half with an 11-2 run over the course of the first 3:39 to pull away from sixth-seeded West Virginia Wesleyan and record a 90-63 victory in the quarterfinals of the annual Mountain East Conference Tournament here Friday afternoon at the Charleston Civic Center.

The victory, which was the fourth in a row for the Cardinals, improved WJU to 23-6 on the year. It also puts Wheeling in Saturday'ssemifinals at 8:15 p.m. against second-seeded and No. 11 ranked West Liberty. The Hilltoppers rallied to defeat seventh-seeded Glenville State Friday, 75-71.

The Cardinals and Hilltoppers had a pair of epic showdowns during the regular season both of which took extra time to decide. West Liberty defeated Wheeling 96-90 in double overtime back on Jan. 19. In the regular-season finale Feb. 25, WJU beat West Liberty in triple overtime 101-98.

“We've got to be ready to fight,” WJU coach Danny Sancomb said. “It's going to be a very physical game. They're going to know what we're going to do and we have a good idea of what they're going to do. We will need to execute better than we have the first two times and we've got to be ready to defend again. We also need to control the glass and make our free throws and if we can do those two things we'll have a great opportunity to win.”

West Virginia Wesleyan ended its season with a 13-16 record.

Leading 39-33 at the half, Wheeling's Haywood Highsmith, who grabbed eight rebounds and handed out four assists, scored six of his team-high 23 points to help spark the game-changing 11-2 spurt which gave the Cardinals a 50-35 lead. After that Wesleyan was never able to get any closer than 11.

“Our mindset after the first half is always that the score is 0-0,” Highsmith said. “I told the team 'We're up by six, but we need to push this lead up more while we're up.' We came out, made some good basketball plays, I scored six quick points and we built on our lead. We knew we needed a strong second half. We wanted to play better than we did in the first half.”

Wesleyan coach Jack Meriweather says the lull during the first four minutes of the final half really proved to be costly to his team.

“That's kind of been the story for us against Wheeling to be honest,” Meriweather said. “This is my sixth time coaching against them and we haven't won one of them. It's always been one stretch where we just can't seem to stop them. That stretch there of about four minutes really cost us.”

Wheeling shot 62.9 percent from the field (22-of-35) in the second half and finished 59.7 percent (37-of-62) from the floor for the game. The Cardinals had 24 assists on their 37 field goals, outscored the Bobcats in the paint by 20, outscored them in points off of turnovers by 14 and held a 33-19 advantage on the glass.

The 19 rebounds by the Bobcats are the fewest ever recorded by a team in MEC Tournament play. The combined 52 total rebounds in the game also set a new tournament single-game record for the least amount recorded by two teams.

“I'm happy with how well we played together today,” Sancomb said. “We were very efficient offensively moving the basketball and with guys giving up good shots to get us great shots. We had 24 assists on 37 field goals. Our guys just played basketball and made good basketball decisions.”

Wesleyan's Mo Berchie led all scorers with 28 points. The only other Bobcat player to reach double figures was Kevin Kangni, who finished with 12.

Wheeling got 21 points and eight rebounds from Kyle Ritz and 15 points from Chase Lawson.

Saturday's semifinal round appearance will be the third straight for Wheeling Jesuit. The Cardinals have never advanced to the championship game of the MEC Tournament.



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Fairmont State Postgame | Charleston Postgame
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Top-ranked Fairmont State took advanced to the MEC Tournament Semifinals with a 76-64 win over the University of Charleston on Friday night.

MEC Player of the Year Matt Bingaya battled early foul trouble that limited his minutes, but the Falcons (28-1) got production from the rest of the supporting cast to earn the victory. D'Ondre Stockman came off the bench and scored 18 points, while Vonte Montgomery added 15 points and seven rebounds. Jason Jolly and Bingaya each finished with 12. Thomas Wimbush netted 10 points and had a team-best four assists.

"I thought it was a hard-fought game, Charleston did a great job of taking care of the basketball," head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. "They did a tremendous job early in the game of limiting Matt Bingaya's touches. I thought the difference in the game was our bench.

"This tournament is crazy -- it's going to be a possession by possession tournament, and we are happy we won."

The Fairmont State pressure forced only 11 turnovers in the game, but forced a frenzied pace that forced the University of Charleston (15-15) to shoot just 35 percent. UC's Elliott Cole was a force in the game with 25 points, and Justin Coleman scored 13 points and had 12 rebounds. LeJavius Johnson was the only other player to reach double figures in scoring for UC with 11.

"When you are going to try and beat the No. 1 team in the country, with a team as good as Fairmont is, you just don't have much margin for error," UC coach Dwaine Osborne said. "I thought our kids played hard, it just wasn't enough to get it done today."

Charleston stayed with Fairmont State in the early going and led 22-21 with just under five minutes remaining in the first half after a pair of Cole free throws. FSU responded, though, with a quick 12-1 run, sparked by six points from Montgomery to start the run. The Falcons would finish the half up nine, 37-28. 

UC stayed within striking distance in the second half and trailed only 48-40 after a Cole three with 11:18 to go. The Falcons once again had the answer to keep the Golden Eagles at bay scoring eight of the next nine points to stretch the lead to to 15 with eight minutes left to essentially put the game away. 

Fairmont State advances to the MEC Tournament semifinals where it will take on the winner of Shepherd and Notre Dame.




Box Score
Shepherd Postgame | Notre Dame Postgame
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By Duane Cochran for MountainEast.org

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Fourth-seeded Shepherd rallied and outscored fifth-seeded Notre Dame 5-0 in the game's final 32 seconds to record a thrilling 71-68 come-from-behind victory in the last game Fridayevening in the quarterfinals of the annual Mountain East Conference Basketball Tournament here at the Charleston Civic Center.

The win improved the Rams to 19-10 overall and earned them a berth in Saturday's semifinals at 6 p.m. against top-seeded and No. 1 ranked Fairmont State (28-1), which eliminated eighth-seeded Charleston Friday, 76-64.

This will be the first semifinal round tournament appearance for Shepherd's men's basketball team since 1997.

Notre Dame, which suffered its fourth straight loss, ended its season with a 16-13 record.

“We knew this was going to be a tough game and all year in games like this we've stepped up and made plays,” Shepherd coach Justin Namolik said. “At halftime I just reminded the guys of that and these two guys right here (A.J. Carr and Steffen Davis) did that for us in the second half and especially late when we needed them. As a result, we were able to pull it out.

“For us as a program we haven't advanced to the semifinals of a conference tournament since 1997 so this is big. Nothing comes easy for us and sitting there on the bench in the final minutes tonight I was praying that we weren't going to have a heartbreaking loss.”

Thanks largely to the efforts of Carr and Davis Shepherd didn't. After Notre Dame's Kyauta Taylor nailed a 3-pointer to give his team a 68-66 lead with 47 seconds to play, Carr, who finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds, answered the shot at the other end with 30 seconds remaining to ultimately give his team the lead for good at 69-68.

“We run that play in practice a lot and to come up there and shoot that shot is just something that I do in practice all of the time and it just shows the carry over,” Carr said. “Did I know that shot was going to go in? No, but I was hoping. I sure was hoping. I'm glad it did, though, and I hope we get some more tomorrow.”

At the other end standout Notre Dame junior forward Will Vorhees, who finished with a game-high 27 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, drove the ball to the basket and was fouled with 10.9 seconds to play and was sent to the line for two shots. Vorhees, a 65 percent free throw shooter for the season, was a perfect 7-of-7 in the game until that point. He, however, missed both and Carr cleared the rebound.

“I hadn't missed a free throw I don't think up until that point and I was just as confident going up there,” Vorhees said. “When the first one came off I still didn't lose my cool. I thought the second one was going in. That's my fault. That was my moment and I've got to put them in. There's no excuses. It won't happen again.”

After Carr cleared the rebound he quickly got the ball to Davis, who was fouled with 8.6 seconds to play. Davis, who led Shepherd with 23 points, six rebounds and four assists, calmly sank both of his free throws to put the Rams ahead 71-68.

“I had missed two free throws earlier and I normally don't miss two in a row and at that point A.J. told me 'Get them back,'” Davis said. “I had the mindset that I had let the team down earlier and that I had to get them back. My teammates have a lot of confidence in me in those situations. We shoot them every day in practice so I never feel like the moment is too big. I just go up there with confidence and think this is a piece of cake.”

The Falcons quickly got the ball into the front court and called timeout with 6.2 seconds to play to set up a final shot attempt. That 3-point attempt was taken by Taylor, who finished with 22 points and nine rebounds and was 6-of-10 from long range until that point. It, however, ricocheted off of the glass and was controlled for a second by Notre Dame's Jay Banyasz, who had it quickly stolen away by Carr to secure the win for Shepherd.

“It was a tough one,” Notre Dame coach Tim Koenig said. “I feel like I've been saying that quite a bit here in the second semester. They made a couple of plays down the stretch and we didn't. We had some chances but didn't capitalize on them. Good for Shepherd. It was a good win for them.”

Davis and Carr were the only two Rams to finish in double figures in scoring. Banyasz scored 11 points to join Vorhees and Taylor in double digits for the Falcons.

As noted, Saturday will be Shepherd's first-ever appearance in the MEC Tournament semifinals. The Rams lost both of their regular-season meetings with Fairmont State.