Wheeling, WV—For the second consecutive season the Wheeling Jesuit men’s basketball team will travel south to Charleston, W.Va. for the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament quarterfinal game at the Charleston Civic Center. The Cardinals opened the 2012 WVIAC Tournament at the Alma Grace McDonough Center with an 87-66 first-round victory over the Senators of Davis & Elkins University, completing a five-game winning streak.
Recardo Gaddy led the Cardinal offense with 21 points while four others notched double-digits. Marquis Moore followed with 17 points and Obi Ukwuoma added 13 points. Rounding out the double-figure efforts were Steve Catich and Joe Prati with 12 and 11, respectively, while Ben Siefert and Pete Brogdon recorded seven and six.
The Cardinals flew to an 8-0 start as Moore took the opening tip directly to the hoop, finishing with a layup. Siefert followed with a 3-point field goal, and Ukwuoma added a lay-up and a foul shot before the Senators got on the scoreboard.
After the Cardinals built a nine point advantage, 17-8, the Senators, began to chip away at the lead and eventually captured control of the scoreboard with 10 unanswered points, 18-17. Joe Prati diffused the Senators attack with a trifecta from the short corner, regaining the advantage a1 18-17, but D&E charged back.
PJ Turner retaliated with a long-distance strike and Mile Ivanic connected with a layup. Moments later, Ian Pinckney and Turner found the net again, and he Senators held their largest lead of the contest at 27-22 with 4:22 remaining in the half.
After a Cardinal time out, called by Head Coach Danny Sancomb, The Cardinals regrouped and fought back with an 8-0 run sparked by Catich and Gaddy’s sharp-shooting from behind the arc. Catich buried the first long-distance shot, and after a lay-in by Moore, Gaddy knocked down a 3-pointer.
Catich added two more buckets for a 34-29 scoreboard overhaul. As time expired, D7E’s Turner was fouled while attempting a 3-pointer from the corner. He buried all three shots from the charity stripe, cutting the Cardinal lead to 34-32 at the break.
In the second half, Gaddy continued to assault the bottom of the net from deep, scorching the Senators with four long-range bombs as the Cardinals cruised to a 12-point lead, 55-43. Brogdon mixed in a pair of shots from downtown, while Ukwuoma and Moore rattled the rim with crowd-pleasing dunks.
For the game, the Cardinals connected with 59.3 percent of their shots, while shooting 47.6 percent from deep. After trailing 17-13 on the glass in the first half, Jesuit
evened the contest as the two teams finished with 28 rebounds apiece.
Ukwuoma led the Cardinals with eight boards and Gaddy followed with seven.
The Cardinals are set to play the No. 6 seeded Mountain Lions of Concord University on Thursday, March 1 at 1:00 p.m. at the Charleston Civic Center.
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