The Notre Dame College Falcons and Fairmont State Fighting Falcons went back and forth in a game that featured eight ties and 13 lead changes. After leading by five at halftime NDC would fall 87-81 at Joe Rhetton Arena. RJ Ogom scored a season high 25 points for the NDC Falcons, Andre Harris tallied 19 points to go along with 11 rebounds while Devin Haid tallied 16 in the loss. With the loss NDC falls to 13-12 and 8-11 in the MEC. Fairmont State was led by Tommy Williams who drained nine triples on his way to 31 points while Zyon Dobbs and David Jolinder each netted 19. Fairmont improves to 19-7 and 11-7 in the MEC.
Ogom would knock down a triple to get the scoring started before FSU would score the next four points. Gbolahan Adio would make a layup before a Jolinder 3-pointer gave FSU a 7-5 lead. NDC would knot the game at 7 on an Ogom jumper and then a jumper by Haid would put the NDC Falcons on top. A 3-pointer by Jolinder would give way to a Harris layup before Williams and Cameron Whiteside would knock down threes to give Fairmont a 16-11 lead with 13:15 until halftime. After a Haid jumper and a Harris triple we would be tied again, this time at 16. A 5-0 run by FSU would be countered by a 7-0 NDC run that put the NDC Falcons up 23-21 after two Josh Dames free throws with 6:06 in the opening half. The two teams would remain on the see-saw until an 8-0 NDC run would give them a 36-29 lead after a Dames triple at the 2:11 mark. NDC would take a 40-35 lead into the halftime break. NDC shot 44.1 percent from the field, 35.7 percent (5-14) from the 3-point line, and a perfect 5-5 from the free throw line in the opening stanza. Fairmont shot 44.8 percent from the field, 50 percent (9-18) from the 3-point line, and 0-2 at the free throw line in the opening stanza.
FSU would battle back and tie the game at 43 on a Jolinder triple at the 17:18 mark. The game would be knotted at 48 after Haid split a pair of free throws at the 15:05 mark. Fairmont led by five (60-55) after Dobbs knocked down a three at the 11:49 mark. Williams would continue his hot shooting and hit back to back triples to stretch the Fairmont lead to nine (66-57) with 10:30 to go but Harris would answer with an NDC triple. After Jamarr Talbert made a three of his own NDC was within three (66-63) with 9:46 on the clock. Senior Trent Williams made layup after a Josh Dames steal and NDC was down four (73-69) with 5:44 to go. After NDC got to within three a couple more times FSU stretched the lead to seven on a pair of Dobbs free throws with 4:11 to go. Ogom made a pair of free throws and Haid hit a jumper to again pull NDC to within three (79-76) with 3:34 to go. Harris would score off of an offensive rebound and then hit a pair of free throws with 20 ticks remaining to pull NDC to within two (83-81.) That is as close as NDC would get as FSU put this one away at the free throw line.
NDC shot 48.3 percent in the contest, 30.4 percent (7-23) from the 3-point line, and 80 percent (16-20) from the free throw line. NDC won the rebounding battle 36-22. They had seven assists and 14 turnovers in this one.
"Proud of our effort. Thought we really competed and did a good job on the glass. Credit them they made some shots. We needed a couple more stops and it would have been a different outcome," NDC head coach Mark Richmond explained.
Fairmont shot 55.6 percent from the field that included a sizzling 68 percent in the second half, 53.3 percent (16-30) from the 3-point line which included 58 percent shooting (7-12) in the final 20 minutes, they shot 64.7 percent (11-17) from the free throw line. FSU had 20 assists and 13 turnovers in this one.
NDC will be back in action Wednesday when they take on West Liberty inside Murphy Gym. Tip time is slated for 7:30 PM.
Other MEC Scores:
Frostburg State 73 Salem 69
Wheeling 80 Glenville State 75
West Virginia State 118 West Virginia Wesleyan 71
West Liberty 89 Concord 76
Charleston 100 Davis & Elkins 58
MEC Standings:
Charleston 16-2 (24-3)
West Liberty 15-3 (21-5)
Concord 13-5 (20-5)
West Virginia State 13-5 (18-7)
Fairmont State 11-7 (19-7)
Davis & Elkins 8-10 (13-13)
NDC 8-11 (13-12)
Glenville State 7-11 (12-14)
Wheeling 6-13 (9-18)
Frostburg State 2-16 (3-23)
West Virginia Wesleyan 1-17 (2-24)
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