The Notre Dame College Falcons and West Virginia State Yellow Jackets were locked in a good one at Murphy Gym down the stretch Wednesday night but it was the Yellow Jackets who made the plays down the stretch to secure a 7 3-66 win. Redshirt sophomore Devin Haid had 19 points and 11 rebounds while Andre Harris added 13 points five assists and four rebounds in the losing effort. With the loss NDC drops to 6-6 and 2-5 in the MEC. The Yellow Jackets improve to 7-5 and 4-3 in the MEC with the win.
"I thought we competed really hard. We had too many critical errors down the stretch and kind of lost our discipline," NDC head coach Mark Richmond stated. "We didn't trust our training, in the last five minutes we gambled defensively and we tried to get it back all at once of offense. We turned it over too many times and we were not able to overcome all those things."
The two teams traded buckets early as Arthur Cox and Jevontae Jones put the ball in the hoop. It was 9-3 WVSU after a Bunky Brown jumper. NDC would score the next six points as Harris would knot the game at nine after a bucket at the 14:35 mark of the opening half. Anthony Pittman scored for WVSU but NDC tied it at 11 on a layup by freshman Cameron Johnson. It was a 8-0 run for the visitors as former Falcon Kalil Camara scored five points and a 3-ball by Kahari Rodgers made it 19-11 at the 10:05 mark of the first half. It was a 22-14 deficit for NDC when the Falcons went on a 8-0 run as Harris made a layup to tie the game at 22 after a Gbolahan Adio layup at the 3:23 mark until halftime. After Pittman gave the Yellow Jackets a brief lead senior Davin Zeigler got in the passing lane and picked up the steal and dunked it at the other end to knot the game at 24. Pittman went on a personal 5-0 run but a 3-pointer by senior Trent Williams would send NDC into the locker room down by two (29-27.) NDC was led by Harris and Haid with six points each in the first half. As a team the Falcons shot 33 percent in the opening half, 2-16 from the 3-point line (12.5 percent) and 25 percent (1-4) from the free throw line in the first 20 minutes.
On the other side WVSU shot 35.3 percent in the first half, 23 percent (3-13) from the 3-point line, and 66.7 percent (2-3) from the free throw line. Pittman had 12 and Camara had five in the opening stanza for the visitors.
NDC came out with renewed energy in the second half. A steal and dunk by Adio would knot the game at 29. Shortly after that a quick NDC 5-0 run happened as Harris had a dunk and Haid hit a shot from long range to give NDC its largest lead of the night at 37-32.
Richmond talked about the run the team went on:
"We made a few adjustments. We really competed on the glass which I was concerned about before the game."
NDC had a 39-34 lead before the next five points went to WVSU. Johnson hit a pair of free throws but Cox tied it for WVSU. A Haid layup and Zeigler jumper made it a 45-41 NDC lead at the 12:17 mark. The Falcons lead was four (50-46) after a Jamarr Talbert layup at the 9:32 mark. Thomas scored the next four points and the game was tied at 50. Josh Dames put NDC back on top with a layup but Martinez gave the Yellow Jackets the lead with a three-point play. NDC went up 54-53 on a Dames pair of free throws with 7:11 to go. After a Haid 3-pointer NDC had the lead but the game was then tied at 57 with 6:05 to play. After a pair of Thames free throws NDC got a free throw from Talbert and a Cox layup put the visitors up by three (61-58.) A Talbert layup cut the lead to one (61-60) at the 3:52 mark. It was a six point NDC deficit (68-62) when Haid hit a technical free throw and Zeigler knocked down a three to make it a two point game (68-66) at the 1:11 mark. That would be as close as NDC would get as the Yellow Jackets closed out the road win.
NDC was led by Haid and Harris who had 19 and 13 points respectively. As a team the Falcons shot 38.2 percent from the field, 18.5 percent (5-27) from the 3-point line and 47.4 percent (9-19) from the free throw line. They had 12 assists and 15 turnovers in the game.
For WVSU they were led by 20 points and 10 rebounds from Pittman, Thames had 15, Martinez scored 11, and Cox tallied 10. As a team WVSU shot 40.6 percent from the field, 28.6 percent (6-21) from the 3-point line, and 75 percent (15-20) at the free throw line.
Richmond gave these postgame thoughts:
"We had four turnovers in the first half and 11 in the second. In the first half we got good shots, in the second half we turned it over to them and that makes them hard to stop. In the first half we handled their pressure for the most part but we didn't finish around the rim. We did a good job on defense when our defense got set. All in all we didn't make as many shots as we normally make. They didn't go in tonight and that is part of the game."
NDC will be back in action Saturday when they travel to Charleston. Tip time is set for 4 PM.
MEC Scores:
Davis & Elkins 92 Glenville State 75
Charleston 94 Salem 62
Concord 80 West Virginia Wesleyan 69
West Liberty 126 Frostburg State 79
Fairmont State 84 Wheeling 82
MEC Standings:
Charleston 5-1 (9-2)
West Liberty 5-1 (10-3)
Davis & Elkins 5-1 (9-4)
Concord 4-2 (8-2)
Fairmont State 4-3 (10-3)
West Virginia State 4-3 (7-5)
Glenville State 3-3 (7-6)
Wheeling 2-4 (5-7)
NDC 2-5 (6-6)
Frostburg State 1-6 (1-12)
West Virginia Wesleyan 0-6 (1-12)
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