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Wheeling Jesuit Men Beat Shepherd

Photo by Josh Strope Wheeling Jesuit’s Brent Pegram takes the ball up court during Saturday’s game.

WHEELING — It’s not how you start but rather how you finish. That sports axiom is one Danny Sancomb can appreciate today. The fiery Wheeling Jesuit men’s hoop coach saw his charges struggle for most of Saturday afternoon’s Mountain East Conference game with Shepherd. But most is not all, and Sancomb’s gritty squad gutted out a 67-62 triumph.

The Cardinals struggled mightily early on, trailing 17-4 six minutes into the contest. The hosts, despite showing flashes of life, still found themselves on the short end of a 33-26 halftime reading.

The onset of the second half proved no kinder to Wheeling Jesuit. The relentless Rams stretched their advantage to 43-31 with more than 15 minutes remaining.

Sancomb’s proddings finally hit home.

The Cardinals proceeded to run off 12 unanswered points, capped by a driving layup by Haywood Highsmith, to even the count at 43-43 with 10:17 left to play.

Shepherd immediately responded, reeling off five straight points. Jesuit eventually knotted the affair again at 54-54 on a thunderous dunk in transition by Jeremiah Wilson with 5:43 showing.

A see-saw affair subsequently ensued. Shepherd took a short-lived 56-54 edge before the Redbirds’ Brent Pegram buried a trey, only to see the Rams counter with one of their own.

Pegram’s two free throws with 4:34 showing tied it at 59-59. A Highsmith trey with 3:31 left gave Jesuit the lead for good at 62-59.

Former Magnolia all-stater Preston Boswell meshed a free throw at the 2:03 mark for a four-point advantage. Jesuit followed with some suffocating man defense before Highsmith delivered the game-clincher with a dunk, boosting the Jesuit lead to 65-59 with just 15 seconds left.

The hard-earned victory was the eighth in nine starts for Jesuit while improving to 5-1 in the MEC. The lone blemish came Wednesday at Fairmont State by a 78-74 margin.

Shepherd, which fell to West Liberty Wednesday, dropped to 3-6 overall and 2-4 in the conference.

“This was a gritty win. We toughed it out,” Sancomb said. “Toughness is a staple of any team that wants to make a run in March. They (Shepherd) were going to make you make some shots.

“I don’t think the Fairmont State game had anything to do with our sluggish start. We just weren’t making shots. We made them defend a little longer in the second half and pulled the game out.”

Highsmith and Pegram each had huge efforts in the come-from-behind win. Highsmith poured in 20 points to go with 11 rebounds and four steals. Pegram matched Highsmith’s point total while adding two rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Drake Goddard was solid support with 11 points while Boswell ended with 10 markers and four assists.

“Drake is getting healthy and playing like a senior while Brent was a big sparkplug for us,” Sancomb said. “Haywood and Jeremiah (11 rebounds also) did an unbelievable job on the glass in the second half as Shepherd had no-second chance rebounds in the last 10 minutes.

“I am very happy with where we are, but we have a lot of room to grow. We are 8-1 with really only four veteran players back from last year.”

Jesuit will receive an acid test Tuesday when it visits undefeated Virginia State, the top-rated team in the Atlantic Region.

AJ Carr led Shepherd with 18 points while Thomas Lang was next with 17. Tha Rams meshed 25 of 64 shots for 39.1 percent. The Cardinals drained 23 of 57 tries for 40.4 percent. Jesuit led off the glass, 41-34. The Cardinals committed 13 turnovers, two more than the visitors.

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