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Fairmont State Postgame | Shepherd Postgame
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- An emphatic one-handed dunk from Winston Burgess over Fairmont State University’s Troy Cantrell was a rare highlight for Shepherd in its 93-65 Mountain East Conference men’s basketball tournament semifinal loss on Saturday.

Memorable moments are hard to come by for Falcons’ opponents this season.

The nation’s top-ranked NCAA Division II team claimed its ninth consecutive victory to advance to the MEC title game at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday against the winner of Saturday’s late semifinal between West Liberty and Wheeling Jesuit.

“Fairmont’s such a good basketball team,” Shepherd coach Justin Namolik said. “They’re deep, they’re athletic, they hound you for 40 minutes. For us, we had a hard time with their pressure.

“I don’t feel like it was necessarily the full court and pressure that bothered us, but more in the halfcourt they really amped up their pressure. We don’t really have an off-the-bounce type of guy to create on his own. We have to rely on each other.”
Fairmont is making its second appearance in the MEC finals, falling 65-58 to Glenville in the 2015 title game.

In the first three years of the MEC’s existence, there have been six different teams play for titles since the league began play in 2013.

For Fairmont’s part, the Falcons became the first two-time qualifier for the MEC final by unmatched depth.
“Strength in numbers,” said Fairmont State coach Jerrod Calhoun, who played nine players at least 10 minutes each. “We have superstars in Matt (Bingaya) and Thomas (Wimbush), but this team is really well balanced.”

Fairmont (29-1) last played in the MEC final in 2015, dropping a 65-58 decision to Glenville.

“This will be a third conference championship game for our program and it’s really special,” Calhoun said.

The Falcons lost to West Liberty in the final West Virginia Conference tournament championship game in 2013. As for the 2014 MEC title game, Charleston upset West Liberty 63-60. In 2015, Glenville defeated the Falcons and Concord topped Notre Dame 70-64 last year.

Fairmont reached Saturday’s championship with efficiency and depth, wearing on the Rams (19-11), never trailing and turning an early 5-4 lead into a 19-10 advantage less than eight minutes into the game.

Vonte Montgomery, who finished with 15 points for Fairmont, hit a 3-pointer with 18:58 remaining for a 49-30 lead. Another by Montgomery 39 seconds later pushed the advantage to 22. The lead was 24 at 16:43 and Fairmont cruised the rest of the way.

The Falcons would not tire.

“Our transition basketball, the way we press, the way we fly around … we don’t play guys a lot of minutes,” said Calhoun, a former assistant under Bobby Huggins at West Virginia University. “We’re playing so hard, doing everything West Virginia does on defense. Everything, in a weird way, the Golden Warriors do on offense. We want to shoot it in the first five seconds.”

Bingaya, the MEC Player of the Year, scored 21 points and added 11 rebounds for the Falcons, while Shammgod Wells added 15 and D’Ondre Stockman 11.

Naim Muhammad’s 15 led the Rams. A.J. Carr had 14, Steffen Davis 11 and Winston Burgess came off the bench to finish with 12 points and 10 boards.

The 28-point margin was larger than Fairmont’s two regular season victories over Shepherd combined. The Falcons won 86-81 at Shepherdstown and 95-80 at Fairmont.

As for his team’s preparation for this moment, Calhoun said it has a lot to do with the perspective of a WVU assistant coach.

Fairmont practices an hour or less each day.

“The best line I ever heard was from Billy Hahn … I know you know who Billy Hahn is,” Calhoun said. “He said, ‘Fresh minds, fresh legs. He said, ‘We’re going to have fresh minds and fresh legs,’ and that stuck with me.”



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West Liberty Postgame | Wheeling Jesuit Postgame
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By Rich Stevens for MountainEast.org

West Liberty will play in the Mountain East Conference men’s basketball tournament title game for only the second time in the league’s four-year existence.

Many onlookers could have made that declaration after the first 20 minutes of the Hilltoppers’ semifinal game on Saturday night at the Charleston Civic Center.

Coach Jim Crutchfield’s second-seeded team knocked out rival Wheeling Jesuit in impressive and immediate fashion, taking a 24-point first-half lead en route to a 105-95 victory over the No. 3 Cardinals (23-6).

The result was very different from the previous two meetings between the teams. Wheeling Jesuit won 96-90 in two overtimes on Jan. 19, and West Liberty returned the favor with a 101-98 win in three overtimes at the McDonough Center on Feb. 25.

West Liberty – the 11^th-ranked team in NCAA Division II -- made its first four shots and was spearheaded throughout the game by senior guard Devin Hoehn. A product of Parkersburg High School, Hoehn pronounced HERN) expanded his game to include more drives, fewer 3-pointers and a dizzying array of ways to score.

Hoehn finished two short of his career high with 34 points, hitting only three 3-pointers and nine two-point baskets. He also was 7-of-9 from the line in 37 minutes.

His personal best was 36 on Nov. 22, 2014 against the University of Charleston as a redshirt freshman. He hit six 3-pointers, seven 2-pointers and all four of his foul shots that night.

“We played him three times and he got it going tonight,” Wheeling Jesuit coach Dan Sancomb said. “Tonight, he was ready to go and made some really tough shots.”

Hoehn, who had a combined 35 points in two meetings against the Cardinals this season, found different ways to score. This season, his has 504 points in 30 games for an average of 16.8 points. More importantly, he is averaging 6.17 two-point baskets and 2.47 three-point baskets this season, compared to 5.10 and 2.63 respectively his first three seasons.

“Devin is just now finding the groove,” West Liberty coach Jim Crutchfield said. “I think he’s played well all season, but right now he’s looking more comfortable and more confident. The key tonight was his ability to get within 4-5 feet and score in multiple ways.”

West Liberty was going early, hitting seven of its first nine attempts and shot 64.7 percent from the field in the first half. The Hilltoppers led by 19 at halftime.

“We came out of the blocks pretty well tonight,” Crutchfield said. “Our level of intensity was high, we kept them off the boards and made a lot of stops. Wheeling has a great team. You know they’re going to make a run.”

The Cardinals inched closer and cut the lead to 78-64 with 7:40 remaining. Moving more closely to within striking distance, a Kyle Ritz two-pointer made it 85-74 at the 5:05 mark.

Wheeling Jesuit got as close as seven at 100-93, but only 36 seconds was showing on the clock.

“Whenever we get in a hole like that, it’s damaging, but I learned a lot about my team today,” said Wheeling Jesuit’s Pat
Moseh had 24 points, which led five double-figure scorers for the Cardinals. Ritz had 15 points, Haywood Highsmith added 13 and Chase Lawson contributed with 13. Dominique Tham came off the bench with 15 points and seven rebounds in 22 minutes.

The game sets up a title showdown with Fairmont State – a team against which West Liberty split during the regular season. The Falcons won at Fairmont 86-81 on Dec. 4, and West Liberty won at home 88-81 on Feb. 4, ending Fairmont’s season-opening 21-game winning streak. The Falcons haven’t lost since, winning 10 consecutive games.

“They’re so good, it’s almost scary,” Crutchfield said of Fairmont. “I watched them the last two nights and they certainly appear to be the No. 1 team in the country.”

Monteroso said he is looking forward to Sunday’s matchup.

“They’re always in the back of our minds,” Monteroso said. “We all kind of knew we wanted him.”
Hoehn wouldn’t bite.

“We know it’s going to be a battle,” Hoehn said.