You knew going into Wednesday night's contest at Murphy Gymnasium that offense was going to be hard to come by as you had the top two teams in the Mountain East Conference on that end of the court. NDC (16-9 12-7) picked up the signature win as they made 10 3-point field goals and outscored Charleston (17-8 14-5 MEC) 40-28 in the second half of the victory. With the win NDC now improves to 10-3 on the home floor which is the most home wins they have had since the 2018-2019 season.
"I am really proud of our guys the way they competed, "NDC head coach Mark Richmond mentioned. "We really emphasized in the last few days to not let Charleston play to their strengths. We wanted to make them play faster and make it ugly at times and I thought we did that tonight."
The first half of Wednesday's contest featured 14 lead changes. In the first three minutes of this one the teams traded blows. Notre Dame got a big block in the early going from Tyland Crawford on a Eddie Colbert layup attempt. "That was my game plan tonight to set the tone early, "Crawford said. "I did that with that big block and I knew they (Charleston) did not like pressure so getting that big block put some pressure on them and we carried that momentum throughout the rest of the first half. The Falcons got eight consecutive points from DeAirius Barker and after a pair of Barker free throws NDC had a 13-6 advantage with 15:21 in the opening half. "Defense is big for us, "Barker said. "I always preach defense, I know our offense will come. If we can stop teams from scoring their is no way they can beat us. When everyone on our team plays at that end and plays for each other, our defense is impeccable."
"We were locked in today, "Obinna Ugwuakazi said. We played as one unit."
Charleston would battle back and go on a 10-1 run to take a 16-14 lead. Over the next nearly four minutes the two teams would be on the see-saw as the lead changed hands 10 times. Jaedon Willis converted an old fashioned three-point play and that would start an 11-0 NDC run that gave them a 10 point advantage (34-24) lead with 4:04 in the opening half. Once again as all good teams do UC would have an answer. They would go on a run of their own to retake the lead 36-34. NDC got a late 3-pointer from Willis right before halftime and after a defensive stop the Falcons would go into the intermission with a 37-36 lead.
Willis talked about how UC was defending him and how he needed to adjust:
"They were doing some different stuff on the ball screens. Obviously teams give me a lot of attention. When they put two guys on the ball against me I just have to make the right play every time. We started slow in the first half as we were getting good shots but didn't knock as many down as we normally do."
Richmond talked pace:
"I thought we got the rhythm and pace just the way we wanted to in our favor."
Willis had 10 points to lead NDC in the opening half, Barker added eight, and Daylin Lee tallied six. NDC shot 40 percent from the field, 4-11 from the 3-point line, and 5-8 at the free throw line in the opening 20 minutes. They had eight assists and turned the ball three times in the half.
UC was led by Colbert with 11, CJ Meredith had nine, and Keith Williams five in the opening stanza. They shot 52 percent from the field, 2-10 from the 3-point line and 2-2 at the free throw line in the half. The Golden Eagles had a 18-15 advantage on the boards in the first half. They had 11 assists and eight turnovers in the opening stanza.
The second half featured five more ties and 10 more lead changes. Charleston went back in front 42-40 but that lead would be short-lived as NDC went back on top 44-42. Down 50-48 with 11 minutes to go Crawford and Gbolahan Adio knocked down back to back triples to give NDC a 54-50 edge. After six straight points by UC it was 56-54 Golden Eagles after a Keaton Turner 3-pointer at the 9:19 mark. Barker would score the next five points on a hoop and then he would again get to the rim and be fouled, he converted the free throw to put NDC up three (59-56.) Then it was an Ugwuakazi 3-pointer that stretched the NDC lead to six (62-56) at the 6:09 mark Ugwuakazi would make two free throws and a layup as his personal seven point run put NDC up 66-58 with 4:50 to go. Eberhart scored for UC but NDC got layups from Barker and Ugwuakazi to put them up 10 and all but put this one away with 2:35 to go. Williams scored but Barker would hit the dagger with under two minutes to go to put NDC up 11 (73-62.) After Eberhart made two free throws NDC would put the exclamation point on this one with a Crawford dunk and a Jamarr Talbert alley-oop.
NDC was led by Crawford with 18 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals, and a block. He talked about his night:
"For me the biggest thing was just to knock down the open shot. Jaedon and DeAirius both do a good job when other teams run two guys at them of finding the open man and I just have to knock the shot down."
Crawford did just that tonight as he was 7-12 from the field including a perfect 3-3 from the 3-point line. Barker scored 15 points as he went 6-10 from the field, he also had three steals and a block. He talked about it:
"Guys like Obi do a good job of setting screens for me. We feed off each other. When our energy is high we are really hard to beat."
Ugwuakazi had a monster night. His stat line showed 13 points, a career high 16 rebounds, two steals, and a career high three blocks. These were his thoughts:
"Finishing the game as a defensive unit helped us win this one. Coach told us that if we move the ball we can beat anyone in the country and I took that to heart."
As a team NDC shot 45 percent from the field, 46 percent (10-22) from the 3-point line, and 69 percent (9-13) from the free throw line. They had 16 assists and eight turnovers in the contest.
Richmond talked about protecting the ball:
"We are really good offensively when we get a shot every time. When we don't hand it to the other team we are pretty good. They have started to realize how important that is. It is not always the best shot but it's better than a turnover. Turnovers usually lead to points at the other end. Our guys have really bought into that recently and have really valued the basketball."
Charleston was paced by Colbert with 17 points, Williams added 12, and Eberhart tallied 11. As a team they shot 43 percent (34 percent in the second half,) 17 percent (4-24 including 2-14 from the 3-point line in the second stanza,) and 75 percent (6-8) from the free throw line. UC won the rebounding battle 36-35. They had 19 assists and 15 turnovers in the contest.
Richmond tried to explain the change of this team coming out of the locker room:
"I didn't love the energy coming out in the second half tonight. I just emphasized to the guys to stay with it. Eventually it swung our way. We made some adjustments. I was proud of how our guys prepared. I added to play offensively at halftime. That was worth 10-15 points in the second half. The guys did a good job of listening and executing. "
Willis gave the final thoughts:
"We made them play faster than they wanted. In the second half we got the lead back and kept our foot on the gas. We tried to get the ball out of their main guys hands and made them play one on one which they don''t like to do. We continued to do that defensively and that's how we held them to 64 points. Great game plan by the coaches and we executed it. Total team effort and we really needed it."
NDC with the win and a loss by West Virginia State took over fourth place in the MEC. The Falcons will travel to Institute, West Virginia to take on those Yellow Jackets. Tip time is set for 4 PM on Saturday.
Other MEC Scores:
Concord 82 West Virginia Wesleyan 60
Alderson Broaddus 92 West Virginia State 82
Fairmont State 109 Wheeling 100
Davis & Elkins 73 Glenville State 70
West Liberty 106 Frostburg State 90
MEC Standings:
West Liberty 17-2 (22-3)
Fairmont State 15-4 (20-5)
Charleston 14-5 (17-8)
NDC 12-7 (16-9)
West Virginia State 11-8 (17-8)
Concord 10-9 (14-11)
Glenville State 10-9 (14-11)
Davis & Elkins 9-10 (15-10)
Alderson Broaddus 7-12 (9-15)
Frostburg State 4-15 (8-17)
Wheeling 3-16 (5-20)
West Virginia Wesleyan 2-17 (2-22)
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