Game #1 – #7 Glenville State def. #10 Wheeling, 96-84 | Box Score
By Duane Cochran for MountainEast.org
WHEELING – A 24-9 spurt in the final 8:21 of the opening half helped seventh-seeded Glenville State break open a close game with 10th-seeded Wheeling University and cruise to a 96-84 victory in the opening round of the annual Mountain East Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament Wednesday evening here at WesBanco Arena.
The Pioneers’ dynamic backcourt duo of Jordan Turbo Smith and Freddie Word combined for 18 of GSU’s 24 points on the game-changing run as they both tallied nine points en route to double-figure scoring performances. Smith finished with a game-high 27 points, eight rebounds and four assists, while Word ended up with 22 points and three assists.
“We kinda feel like we’ve got to set the tone for our team,” Word said. “When we get going, the team gets going.”
Smith agrees.
“Honestly I feel like for us that run started on the defensive end,” Smith said. “We had a huddle on the court before a free throw and we just said ‘We’ve got to get some stops. It’s time to go.’ Right then we all locked in. We got some stops and on offense our teammates found us, we scored the ball, made the right reads and handled business like we’re supposed to do.”
Wheeling’s Marcus Johnson, who led the Cardinals with 25 points and 10 rebounds, says Smith and Word were a handful for his team’s defense Wednesday night.
“They’re hard to guard because they’re so quick, fast and downhill all of the time,” said Johnson. “We didn’t rotate fast enough to stop the open three. They kinda put us in scramble mode on defense and they were either getting to the rim or getting kick outs for open threes.”
The victory improved the Pioneers to 17-12 on the year and earned them a berth in the quarterfinals Friday at noon against second-seeded Fairmont State (22-6). Glenville swept the regular-season series with the Falcons winning 88-83 in Fairmont and 85-84 in overtime in Glenville.
“Tonight I thought we played pretty well, especially in the first half to create a little of that separation,” said Pioneer coach Justin Caldwell. “When you hold a team to 30 percent from the field and 12 percent from three like we did in the first half you’re going to set yourself up to win a lot of games.
“I thought we did a pretty good job, especially in the first half of defending which plays to our strength. When we can get stops, we can get the ball out in transition and we’re a transition basketball team.”
The Pioneers shot 42.5 percent from the field in the opening half, including a 7-of-19 showing from behind the 3-point line. GSU also turned Wheeling over eight times which led to 13 points and a 52-34 lead at the break. In the second half the Cardinals never got any closer than the final 12-point margin.
Wheeling finishes the season with a 6-23 record. Twelve of the Cardinals’ losses this season have been by single digits and 10 of those were by five points or less.
“There’s not much to say about today’s game,” Wheeling coach Chris Richardson said. “We didn’t play our best.
“For a team with our record we have had very few performances like that. There’s probably a lot of people surprised to see us here given our record. The most surprising thing for us today is our performance was not us. Give a lot of credit to Glenville State for that. We struggled to make shots and we struggled to pass and catch early. We have no excuses, though. We’re a no-excuse program.”
Wheeling played the contest without leading scorer and first-team All-MEC selection John Korte, who was sidelined with a reported back injury. Korte averaged 19.6 points and 7.3 rebounds per contest for the Cardinals during the regular season.
“There’s no question that hurt them,” Caldwell said. “He averages 19 points a game so he puts a lot of pressure on your defense.”
In addition to Smith and Word, Glenville got 20 points and five rebounds from Jacquez Yow and 11 points and three steals from De’Ante Petree.
Johnson’s double-double performance for Wheeling was complemented by Brent Price, who also posted a double-double scoring 20 points and grabbing a game-high 14 boards. The Cardinals also got 19 points and six rebounds from Andrew Taylor.
“We have a great group of young men on our team,” said Taylor. “We’ve got gym rats. Guys who will be in the gym every day. We’ve had our struggles this season. We had a lot of ups and downs, but I wouldn’t trade this group of guys for nothing. Our togetherness as a team is amazing. Going into this off season we’re going to work our butts off and you’ll will see us again. I promise that.”
The Glenville win extended the winless streak for No. 10 seeds in the tournament to nine straight games. No 10th-seed has ever won a game in the MEC Men’s Basketball Tournament. In the 2021 Covid-shortened season divisional seeding was used for the tournament so there was no No. 10 seed.
Game #2 – #8 Concord def. #9 Alderson Broaddus, 76-65 | Box Score
By Duane Cochran for MountainEast.org
WHEELING – First-team All-Mountain East Conference forward Daniel Rahama scored a game-high 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to help eighth-seeded Concord University pull away from ninth-seeded Alderson-Broaddus in the game’s final six minutes and record a 76-65 victory in the opening round of the league’s annual men’s basketball tournament here Wednesday evening at WesBanco Arena.
“When he came into our program two years ago he made an immediate impact,” said Concord coach Todd May. “We talk with our guys about being everyday guys. He brings it every single day. He raises the level of his teammates. He’s a leader, a great person and he was special tonight for us for sure.”
The double-double was Rahama’s team-leading 12th of the season. He also combined with teammate J.J. Harper to score 12 of the Mountain Lions final 18 points as they pulled away from the Battlers with an 18-10 spurt in the game’s last 6:46.
“Just being a guy with experience it’s what you have to do as a player when you get the opportunity,” Rahama said. “It’s my second year here, but my fifth playing college basketball. I’ve tried to learn from my old school and here to be a good leader and to do what I have to do and what I want us to do as a team to get a win.”
Veteran A-B coach Stephen Dye admits Rahama was a problem for his team’s defense all evening.
“He’s experienced and as coaches we love that,” Dye said. “You need those floor leaders in tough situations on the floor. He’s been in a lot of tough situations over his five years of playing.
“He’s fun to watch. Now, I don’t like watching him when I’m coaching against him, but I really like watching him when I’m not. He just plays the game the right way. He’s tough, hard-nosed and very physical. My guys know that. They talk about him and have a lot of respect for him.”
A-B struggled to shoot the ball for much of the game. The Battlers finished just 34.8 percent (24-of-69) from the field, including just 7-of-25 (28 percent) from long range. Concord also outscored A-B in the paint 48-34.
“It was a tough game for us,” Dye said. “We obviously didn’t play our best. It was a very physical game and I thought we battled, but we just didn’t have our A game today. Thirty-four percent from the field is not typically us. We struggled from the 3-point line and we knew coming in it was going to be a battle in the paint and we just didn’t get it done. Getting outscored 48-34 in the paint is pretty much the story of the game.”
Harper finished with 11 points and eight rebounds for the Mountain Lions who improved to 15-14 overall and earned the right to advance to Friday’s quarterfinal round against top-seeded West Liberty (25-3) at 6 p.m. Concord also got 11 points from Ethan Heller and eight points apiece from both Jevon Laidler and Amare Smith.
“It was a really good college basketball game,” May said. “Give credit to A-B and coach Dye. They were down a few bodies, but they came out and jumped on us early. I thought our guys did a great job of responding. It was a close game at the half and for much of the second half, but we were able to extend the lead late and I think that started with our defense. We did a phenomenal job of holding that team to 35 percent shooting and on the glass where were plus five. That was a key.”
A-B, which finished its season at 11-17, got 16 points from Jalen Knott, 13 points and 12 rebounds from Jon King, 12 points from Coryon Rice and 10 from Sirr Hughes.
“This game hurt to be honest,” Knott said. “This is the game everyone wanted. We felt like we were better than our seeding and to go out and perform like we did tonight was disappointing.”
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