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Wheeling Jesuit Men Earn Much-Needed Victory Against Falcons

Photo by Kyle Lutz Wheeling Jesuit’s Preston Boswell (4) goes in for a layup as Notre Dame College’s Will Vorhees tries to chase him down.

WHEELING — Coming off a stretch of playing 6 of 7 on the road and losing four of those in the rugged Mountain East Conference, Wheeling Jesuit was happy to be playing at the Alma Grace McDonough Center on Thursday night. When Haywood Highsmith slammed on 7-foot Notre Dame center Jacob Sawman on the Cardinals’ second possession, it immediately became clear that business was about to pick up.

Highsmith finished with 20 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and three steals as Wheeling Jesuit (21-5, 15-6) earned a needed, 84-69 victory.

”I think the last time we played at home was Feb. 4 vs. Shepherd,” WJU coach Danny Sancomb said. ”It felt good to know we were going to be here all week and we didn’t have to get on a bus and make a long trip.

”We had a really good week of practice and it carried over. It wasn’t our best game but our energy and effort was at a high level.”

The Falcons (16-11, 10-11), who have dropped five of their last six, cut a 47-36 halftime deficit to four on a pair of free throws by Will Vorhees. But the Cardinals responded with a 15-3 run to put it comfortably at 71-56.

The margin remained in double digits throughout the remainder of the game as Wheeling Jesuit held onto third place in the conference standings.

A key was the containment of Vorhees, who came in averaging 26 points and 10 rebounds. WJU didn’t allow him to score until 5:14 remained in the first half, though Vorhees finished with 23 points and six boards.

”He’s really good offensively and we say we held him to 23 points?” Sancomb said. ”I love that we forced him into five turnovers because he’s pretty even with his assist-to-turnover on the season.

”Dom Tham and Kyle Ritz did a really good job, but also our guys doubling and making it difficult. We executed the defensive gameplan to perfection. Holding them to 69 points is pretty good defense.”

The Cardinals took an 8-2 lead on a 3 by Jarin Hilson, who ended with 15 points and six rebounds. NDC got it even at 11-11 on a Ja’Sean Lewis tip-dunk, then took what turned out to be its only lead on the next trip courtesy of a 3-pointer from Drew Scarberry.

However, Preston Boswell came off the bench and scored five straight points to put Jesuit on top to stay.

”Preston Boswell was great off the bench and gave us great energy,” Sancomb said. ”Not only did he shoot well, but he did a great job on Scarberry.

”I think he blocked two shots, was closing out and was really good.”

Boswell ended with 18 points, four steals and two assists. Tham, in addition to some good interior defense, scored 11 points. But the night no doubt belonged to Highsmith.

”Haywood does a little bit of everything. When he plays really well we’re hard to beat,” Sancomb said. ”I felt bad (because) I was going through and telling everyone who played well … and I left Haywood out. You take it for granted a little bit.

”I expect him to end with 12-13 rebounds, 15 points, a couple blocked shots and a couple assists.

”He came up big.”

Kobie Johnson added 13 points for the Falcons, who also received 12 and 11, respectively, from Kyuata Taylor and Scarberry.

West Liberty 121

Urbana 90

URBANA, Ohio — David Dennis Jr. poured in a career-high 28 points to pace six double-figure scorers and No. 7-ranked West Liberty shot a blistering 77 percent from the floor in the second half of a 121-90 blowout of Urbana Thursday night at the Grimes Center.

Coach Jim Crutchfield’s Hilltoppers (25-2, 18-2) led by as many as 11 points in the first half before settling for a 58-50 advantage at the break but wasted little time putting the Blue Knights (11-16, 6-15) away when play resumed.

Dennis bookended a blurry fast 9-0 spurt with a pair of driving layups to help West Liberty open up a 76-60 lead with 14:15 remaining and the margin never dropped below double figures again.

Urbana managed one last gasp midway through the half when a short jumper by A.J. Washington cut the deficit to 86-76 with 10:03 to play but Dennis helped ignite a 13-0 WLU run to put the game on ice.

The speedy sophomore guard got things started with a pretty backdoor feed to Brady Arnold for a layup. Dennis then fed Devin Hoehn and James Griffin for back-to-back 3-pointers before tossing in a pair of charity tosses to forge a 96-76 lead with 7:42 on the clock. After another defensive stop, Dennis capped the surge by finding a wide-open Griffin for another bonus bomb and the Hilltoppers were on their way.

The Hilltoppers missed only eight shots in the entire second half (26 of 34) and scorched the nets at a sizzling 62 percent (44 of 71) clip for the game in completing the season sweep of their hosts.

Dennis fell just shy of a double-double with nine assists to go along with his game-high 28 points while adding four rebounds and a game-high three steals to his final stat sheet. Hoehn finished with 19 points and freshman Clay Guillozet notched a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Griffin just missed his own double-double with 15 points and nine boards while Brandon Smith and Zac Grossenbacher rounded out the double-figure scorers with 12 and 10 points, respectively.

Grossenbacher was also credited with four blocked shots, pulling him into a tie with Keene Cockburn for No. 3 all-time at West Liberty with 166 career rejections.

DeQuan Abrom led Urbana with 21 points with Jahmere Howze adding 17. Carlas Jackson and Jimmy Weinke weighed in with 16 points each in a losing cause.

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