The Notre Dame College Falcons won a road game for the first time since December 11th at West Virginia Wesleyan. NDC built a big lead and hung on for the 82-76 win at the McDonnell Center on the campus of Davis and Elkins College. With the win NDC has now won three straight. The loss was the sixth consecutive defeat for the Senators.
NDC head coach Mark Richmond talked about it all post game:
"I was proud of our effort today at D and E, "Richmond mentioned. "We got off to a great start and finished the first half strong. We relaxed a little bit in the second half and they made a run at us but we were able to close it out."
Ben Gilliam scored the first basket of the game for D and E but NDC would respond with a 13-2 run. Tyland Crawford and Sam Jackson would score 11 of the first 13 points for the visitors. A Crawford 3-pointer at the 13:02 mark of the opening half gave NDC a 21-8 lead. The Falcons lead would grow to 19 (31-12) after a Mike Sampson 3-pointer at the 9:26 mark of the half. After two Charleston Ponds free throws the Falcons got a 3-pointer from Jamaar Talbert to increase the lead to 20 (34-14) with 7:33 in the opening half. The next six points went the Senators way before a Jackson layup. Mike Kirkland hit a 3-pointer for NDC, but the Senators would score the next six points. NDC would close the half on a 5-0 run as Willis nailed a triple and Gbolohan Adio hit a jumper to give the Falcons a 44-27 halftime lead. NDC was paced by Crawford with 13 and Jackson with 12 in the opening half. Willis was held to six points but dished out a team leading six assists. NDC shot 52 percent in the opening stanza, 53 percent (8-15) from the 3-point line and went two of two at the free throw line in the half. The Senators were paced by 15 points and seven rebounds from Breland Walton in the opening half, while Ben Gilliam netted eight. The Senators shot 40 percent from the field in the opening stanza, they were 0-7 from the 3-point line, and shot 58 percent (7-12) at the free throw line.
NDC would grow the lead to 19 (53-34) after a DeArius Barker layup at the 16:05 mark. The Senators would score the next five points before a Crawford 3-pointer made it 56-39 NDC. Up 58-41 with 14:29 to go after a Crawford layup D and E went on a 9-0 run to trim the lead to single digits (58-50) after a Cortney Walton layup. John Godinez scored his only 3-points of the game on the next possession as his 3-pointer made it 61-50 NDC with 10:55 to go. The lead stayed at 11 until a Sam Rolle 3-pointer made it 68-60. Breland Walton made two free throws with 7:24 to go and all of the sudden the Falcons found themselves in a battle leading by just six (68-62.) Mike Kirkland hit a 3-pointer before the Senators scored the next five points to get to within five (71-66) after a Rolle dunk with 5:57 on the clock. Crawford continued his big day as he made a layup. After Rolle split a pair of free throws Crawford knocked down another triple to make it 76-67 NDC with 5:08 left. A dunk by Adio with 2:33 remaining made it 78-69 Falcons after the Senators had creeped a little closer. Breland Walton made a layup and Cortney Walton a 3-pointer to cut the Falcons lead to four (78-74) with 41 ticks remain but that is as close as D and E would get. Willis would go four of four at the free throw line down the stretch to seal the win.
Crawford paced the Falcons with a season high 26 points, as he knocked down six 3-pointer's, he also added six boards, and three assists, Jackson had a season high 14 points and five rebounds of his own, and Willis tallied 10 to go with six rebounds and six assists. As a team NDC shot 46 percent from the field, 50 percent (14-28) from the 3-point line, and went a perfect eight of eight at the free throw line. The Falcons had 21 assists and 15 turnovers in the contest.
The Senators were paced by Breland Walton with 23 points and nine rebounds, Rolle added 19 points and eight assists, while Cortney Walton netted 13. As a team the Senators shot 48 percent from the field, 27 percent (6-22) from the 3-point line, and 63 percent (12-19) from the free throw line. They won the rebounding battle 37-34. As a team the Senators had 16 assists and 17 turnovers.
Richmond gave his final thought after this one:
"Overall I thought every guy contributed and it's always good to get a road win."
NDC will be back in action Wednesday when they host Fairmont State. Tip time is slated for 7:30 PM.
Tyland Crawford gave his thoughts after the game:
"We as a team had a mindset that we were going to set the tone early and we did that, "Crawford stated. My first several shots went in and seeing that just kept me going. My teammates told me to keep being aggressive and I did that. It was an overall great effort from the whole team today."
Other MEC Scores:
Glenville State 100 Frostburg State 78
Alderson Broaddus 72 West Virginia Wesleyan 52
West Virginia State 76 Wheeling 71
Fairmont State 82 Concord 80
West Liberty 96 Charleston 82
MEC Standings:
West Liberty 14-2 (20-2)
Fairmont State 13-3 (18-3)
Charleston 12-4 (16-5)
West Virginia State 11-4 (16-6)
NDC 10-6 (13-9)
Concord 8-8 (10-11)
Alderson Broaddus 7-9 (10-10)
Wheeling 6-10 (7-15)
Glenville State 5-10 (8-11)
Davis & Elkins 4-12 (6-16)
Frostburg State 4-12 (6-16)
West Virginia Wesleyan 1-15 (2-20)
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