×
X logo

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox.

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)

You may opt-out anytime by clicking "unsubscribe" from the newsletter or from your account.

WLU Handles West Virginia Wesleyan

Meininger records triple-double in win

BUCKHANNON–Eric Meininger had West Liberty’s first triple-double in nearly a decade and the No. 2-ranked Hilltoppers used a late 17-3 surge to get past upset-minded West Virginia Wesleyan, 80-71, Monday night at Rockefeller Arena.

It was the fourth straight win for Coach Ben Howlett’s youthful Hilltoppers (4-1, 2-0) but seeing the veteran Bobcats (3-2, 1-1) give the Hilltoppers all they could handle for the first 35 minutes came as no surprise to the second-year coach.

“Wesleyan is a very good basketball team that’s going to win a lot of games,” Howlett said. “We saw them in the Crossover Tournament at our place and watched the tape from when they beat Wheeling (Jesuit) on Saturday so we knew what we were getting into.”

West Liberty got off to a good start, opening up a 12-5 lead on a Keegan Saben jumper as the first-half clock ticked past the 15-minute mark, but couldn’t pad the margin.

Relying on an aggressive zone defense to keep the Hilltopper offense at bay, Wesleyan began to find the range from the perimeter and turned the tables on the visitors.

Knocking down eight 3-pointers while holding West Liberty to just 23 points for the final 15 minutes of the half, the upset-minded Bobcats carried a 40-35 lead into intermission.

Wesleyan took its biggest lead of the night, 43-35, when Fred Brondsted opened the second half with a 3-point bomb but WLU’s Will Yoakum answered with a 3-pointer at the other end and Yahel Hill finished off an assist from Meininger to make it a one-possession game, 43-40, less than a minute later.

The 6-5 Meininger, the only senior in the WLU lineup, finished the night with 17 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists – many of them coming during the Hilltoppers’ decisive late-game run.

It was the first triple-double by a West Liberty player since Mike Mathey had 13 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists in a 142-62 blowout of Concord on Jan. 23, 2010 at the ASRC.

A Dalton Bolon 3-pointer and a short jumper by Yoakum forged the first tie of the second half, 45-45, with 16:24 on the clock and the game swung back and forth for the next few minutes before West Liberty finally took charge.

Marcus Larsson’s 3-pointer with 8:38 to go gave Wesleyan its final lead, 62-60, but Bolon hit a jumper to tie it as the clock ticked under 8 minutes. Two Meininger free throws put WLU ahead to stay, 64-62, at the 7:11 mark but Howlett’s Hilltoppers were just getting started.

Back-to-back baskets by Yoakum – including a 3-pointer from the corner off a brilliant assist from Luke Dyer – made it 69-62 at the 5-minute mark.

Brondsted tried to stop the bleeding with another 3-pointer, cutting the deficit to 69-65, but that proved to be Wesleyan’s only points during this crucial 6 1/2-minute span.

Meininger whipped a kick-out pass to Dyer for another 3-pointer and Dyer fed Bolon for yet another bonus bomb and the game’s first double-digit lead, 75-65, forcing a Bobcat timeout with 2:31 to play.

The Hilltoppers delivered two more defensive stops and Meininger found a wide-open Yoakum under the basket, capping the 17-3 run and putting the game out of reach, 77-65, with just 90 seconds to go.

“I’m tremendously proud of our guys,” Howlett said. “For us to go up against that tricky zone defense of Wesleyan’s for 40 minutes and come away with a win is huge for our team. That’s the kind of win that can pay big dividends for a young basketball team.”

Bolon led all scorers with a game-high 23 points, including 5 3-pointers, while Yoakum joined Bolon and Meininger in double-figures with 16 points. Brondsted hit 5 3-pointers and paced the Bobcats with 17 points. Dusan Vicentic and Luca Petrovic backed Brondsted with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Men’s basketball comeback falls short at Glenville State

GLENVILLE–The Wheeling Jesuit University men’s basketball team nearly erased a 19-point second half deficit, but came up short in a 117-113 loss at Glenville State in a Mountain East Conference (MEC) game Monday night at the Waco Center.

Wheeling Jesuit (0-4, 0-2 MEC) trailed 83-64 with 13 minutes left in the game. The Cardinals went on to out-score Glenville State 49-to-31 over the next 12 minutes, capped off by a three pointer by freshman guard Franck Kamgain, to pull within one at 114-113 with 20 seconds left in the game. After a Pioneer timeout, freshman guard Jay Gentry stole the in-bound pass and kicked the ball out to Kamgain for a potential go-ahead trey, but the ball rimmed out. Glenville State (4-1, 1-1 MEC) got the ball back and knocked down a trio of free throws to hold off the Cardinals comeback efforts.

Gentry led four Wheeling Jesuit players in double-figures with 36 points on 12 of 20 (60 percent) shooting, including 5-of-8 from long range. Sophomore Brendan Hoban finished with 25 points and eight assists. Kamgain tallied 24 points and four steals, while freshman Tariq Woody chipped in 28 points and a team-high eight rebounds.

The Cardinals tied the game at 10-10 on a Gentry three pointer less than four minutes into the game. The Pioneers went on a 13-2 run to open up a 23-12 lead, but Wheeling Jesuit responded with an 11-4 spurt of its own to narrow the gap to 27-23 with 9:46 remaining in the first half. Glenville State got hot from long range, converting four-straight three pointers to re-establish a double-digit lead at 40-25 with 7:15 left in the first half. The Pioneers led by as many as 19 points, before the Cardinals closed the half on a 7-2 run to enter the locker rooms trailing 57-43.

Glenville State maintained a double-digit lead and rebuilt its lead to 19, 83-64, with 13:08 left in the game. Wheeling Jesuit then enjoyed its best stretch of the night, out-scoring the Pioneers 39-25 over the next 10 minutes to draw within five, 108-103, with 2:56 left in the game. The Cardinals shot 14 of 21 (66 percent) from the field with six three pointers during the run, with Hoban scoring 19 of his 25 points in the game over that stretch.

The Cardinals shot 27 of 44 (62 percent) in the second half after posting 19 of 40 (48 percent) in the first half. All eight of the team’s trips to the free-throw line came in the second half.

Brown, Johnson Key Road Romp for WLU Women

BUCKHANNON–Marissa Brown and Taylor Johnson had huge games as the West Liberty University women’s basketball team sprinted off to an 86-63 Mountain East Conference victory at West Virginia Wesleyan.

Coach Kyle Cooper’s Hilltoppers (3-2, 1-1) jumped out to a double-digit lead after one quarter and pulled away down the stretch to keep the host Bobcats (0-3, 0-2) winless on the young season.

“Tonight was a real moment of growth for our team,” Cooper said. “We struggled to play on the road last season but we not only played well tonight, we found a way to push through some adversity with some scoring droughts. The key was that we shared the basketball really, really well which got everybody in the flow.”

Brown, WLU’s returning All-America center, just missed a triple-double with another dominating performance. The versatile 6-3 post worked the paint for 32 points, grabbed 19 rebounds and was charted with 9 blocked shots despite missing significant stretches of the second half due to foul trouble.

Johnson, a 5-9 shooting guard in her first season at WLU after transferring from Belmont Abbey (N.C.), was forced to play the point on Monday with starting point guard Audrey Tingle sidelined due to injury and the West Liberty offense didn’t miss a beat.

The junior transfer backed Brown with 18 points but also dished out a career-high 13 assists and didn’t fall that far short of her own triple-double by adding 6 rebounds to her stat sheet.

Morgan Brunner, a junior transfer from Youngstown State, moved into the starting lineup in Tingle’s place and added 11 points before leaving the game in the fourth quarter with an apparent injury.

West Virginia Wesleyan stayed within striking distance for much of the first three quarters, trailing by scores of 33-27 at the half and 57-49 heading into the final 10 minutes but a 14-0 Hilltopper surge in the early part of the fourth quarter sealed the deal.

Moore eclipses 1,000 points; Cards fall at Glenville State

WHEELING–Senior forward Chenelle Moore became the 24th member of the 1,000-point club, but the Cardinals came up short at Glenville State 123-88 inside the Waco Center in a Mountain East Conference (MEC) contest.

Moore finished the game with her fourth double-double of the season with season-highs of 31 points and 17 rebounds and shot 13-of-23 from the field. Junior Khira Burton added 21 points, while junior Taliah Cashwell chipped in 15 in the game.

Glenville State (4-0, 2-0 MEC) pushed the pace with a full-court press and five-on-five-off subs nearly every minute. The Cardinals (2-3, 1-1 MEC) fell behind 35-11 after one quarter, behind nine Pioneer three pointers.

Moore, who entered the game sitting at 991 points, collected her 1,000th-point at the 5:41 mark of the second quarter on a layup. The Cardinals doubled their scoring output from the first quarter to the second, but still trailed 62-33 heading into halftime.

Wheeling Jesuit went on to score 55 points in the second half, but were unable to make much of a dent into the Glenville State lead. The Pioneers kept the pressure on and finished the game making 22 of 57 from three-point range (39 percent).

Moore is the second 1,000-point scorer in as many years. Former Cardinal Mariah Callan became the 23rd 1,000-point scorer in program history last season.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

COMMENTS

Starting at $4.73/week.

Subscribe Today