The Notre Dame College Falcons trailed by 17 points (38-21) with 8:16 to go in the opening half on Tuesday night at the ASRC on the campus of West Liberty. The Falcons tied the game at 52 at halftime. The Falcons shot 58.8 percent in the opening stanza and 42.2 percent (3-7) from the 3-point line. The second half did not go quite as well as NDC fell 107-83.
NDC Head Coach Mark Richmond gave these thoughts postgame:
"We came up short tonight, "Richmond mentioned. "We weren't able to get enough stops down the stretch."
The two teams went back and forth as the lead change hands a few times and would be tied at four after 45 seconds. The two teams would each have four point runs as the game was knotted at eight. The Hilltoppers opened up a double digit lead (25-13) after Dante Spadafora knocked down a 3-pointer With 14:25 in the half. After the Hilltoppers took the aforementioned 17 point lead (38-21) NDC went on 9-0 run Andre Harris, Kaleb Torrence and Jaedon Willis scored baskets in transition. Down 12 (45-33) the Falcons got a layup by Obinna Ugwuakazi and a jumper by DeAirius Barker to make it 45-37 with 3:07 in the half. After two Malik McKinney free throws for West Lib NDC went on another 11-0 spurt to take the lead 48-47 after a Jamarr Talbert 3-pointer and a pair of Gbolahan Adio free throws. West Liberty went back ahead before Adio made a layup. After a 3-pointer by Bryce Butler NDC tied the game at 52 on a pair of Harris free throws as the teams headed to the locker room.
The second half saw the home team come out and score the first eight points to go up 60-52. After back to back layups by Willis and Harris NDC was within four (62-58) at the 16:55 mark. The Hilltoppers would stretch the lead to double digits (71-60) after a Christian Montague hoop at the 15:09 mark. Willis would get the Falcons within nine before the lead was back out to 16 (82-66) for WLU on a Ben Sarson dunk. 12 is as close as the Falcons would get the rest of the way as the Hilltoppers completed the victory.
NDC (2-3 1-1 MEC) was paced by Willis who tallied 26 points, Harris stuffed the stat sheet with a career high 13 points, as well as career highs in rebounds (7) and assists (6.) . Barker also netted double figures with 10 on the night. NDC shot 47.6 percent from the field, 25 percent (4-16) from the 3-point line, and 86 percent (19-22) from the free throw line. They had 14 assists and 14 turnovers in the contest.
#5 West Liberty (5-0 2-0 MEC) was paced by Sarson who had 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Butler scored 21 points, nabbed nine rebounds and dished out seven assists, Steve Cannady added 14 and Christian Montague netted 11. WLU shot 46.9 percent from the field, 41.7 percent (15-36) from the 3-point line and 72.7 percent (16-22) from the free throw line. WLU won the rebounding battle 41-26. They had 26 assists and 12 turnovers in the victory.
Richmond gave his final thoughts:
"We tried to do some things out of character late in the game and the game got away from us. We played well in certain spurts but it takes 40 minutes against that team particularly at their place."
NDC will be back in action next Wednesday (11/30) when they host Glenville State after taking a break for Thanksgiving.
Other MEC Scores Tuesday:
Charleston 99 Glenville State 83
Davis & Elkins 97 Frostburg State 84
West Virginia State 85 Concord 80
Alderson Broaddus 79 Wheeling 75
Fairmont State 92 West Virginia Wesleyan 72
MEC Standings:
West Liberty 2-0 (5-0)
Fairmont State 2-0 (4-0)
West Virginia State 2-0 (4-0)
Charleston 2-0 (3-2)
Davis & Elkins 1-1 (4-1)
Frostburg State 1-1 (2-3)
NDC 1-1 (2-3)
Alderson Broaddus 1-1 (1-3)
Concord 0-2 (2-3)
Glenville State 0-2 (1-3)
Wheeling 0-2 (1-4)
West Virginia Wesleyan 0-2 (0-5)
Comments