Cardinals Overcome Slow Start
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WHEELING -- It's hard to keep a good offense down for long.
That was the case Wednesday in an MEC Tournament first-round game between the Wheeling and Glenville State men's basketball teams.
The ninth-seeded Cardinals overcame a slow start to build a 42-24 lead at halftime and won 78-72, but they never counted the Pioneers' high-powered offense out.
"I think we all knew they were going to come back," said Wheeling coach Chirs Richardson. "It's a 40-minute game. We knew they were going to come back and make a run, we just had to stay poised and stay together. "
The Pioneers sport the second-best offense in the MEC, averaging 88.5 points per game, as well as the league's top individual scorer in senior John Williams (24.6 ppg). Glenville shot just 28.1% from the floor in the first half and just 18.8% from three, but that did not hold up for the full 40 minutes.
"When you have guys like this, they never quit. It's the DNA of our team," said Glenville coach Justin Caldwell. "We've battled a lot and kept fighting through it, so I knew they weren't going to give.
"We had a couple of runs and got it right to where we needed to but just couldn't get it over the hump."
Glenville switched to a full-court press to begin the second half, which sped the Cardinals up and helped the Pioneers score a few easy baskets. The Pioneers' best run was a 14-4 stretch that helped them cut the lead to eight points midway through the period.
Glenville continued to whittle away at the lead until a pair of layups by Williams made it a two-point game, 72-70 and then 74-72, with a minute and a half left to play.
"I knew we were going to make a run and come back," Williams said. "I truly believed we were going to win the game but we couldn't get over that last little hump. We fought as hard as we could and I'm proud of my team for fighting until the end."
Wheeling was able to overcome Glenville's pressure in the final moments as Jordan Reid and Jay Gentry sank two free throws each to preserve the lead and secure the win.
"We're fine playing fast, but we've got to be fast and functional," Richardson said. "I thought we struggled to function at times. I thought the way we controlled the game down the stretch offensively gave us just enough to win. But we've got to do a better job at that than we did in the first 15 minutes or so."
It was the first tournament win and the first win inside WesBanco Arena for several members of the veteran Wheeling roster. Notably, Reid, Gentry and fellow senior Jarett Haines had suffered first-round tournament losses in each of the last three seasons.
"It's been a long time coming," said Reid, who led the Cardinals with 28 points. "Coach jokes around with me about getting old, I'm 23, so I had to come out here and show I still had some left in me."
Reid put a lot on himself to try and get the win Wednesday. After the Cardinals gave up 33 points to Williams in each of their two regular-season matchups, Reid wanted to personally guard him in the tournament.
"I texted Coach at the beginning of the week and said I wanted to guard John Williams," Reid explained. "He torched us the two other times we played them and I took that matchup kind of personal. We all know he's a great player and he's going to make shots. It's a personal thing for me. When people come in and score a lot on us, I take it personally."
Williams finished with 18 points, scoring nine in each half.
The game did not start out great for the Cardinals, who fell into an early 7-0 hole. Richardson never called a timeout to regroup, however. He did not feel that he needed to with the senior leadership that Wheeling has.
"I trust these guys," Richardson said, talking about Reid and Haines. "We've been through some great starts and we've been through some bad starts and I trust these guys. We were fine, I thought we were just a little bit jittery. Once we were able to settle in, I wasn't really concerned with the start."
Haines finished just behind Reid with 22 points while Gentry and John Korte each had 11.
Adrian Scarborough led Glenville State with 21 while John Williams and Tommy Williams each had 18.
Wheeling advances to Friday's quarterfinal round, where they will play local rival and No. 1-seeded West Liberty, the No. 2-ranked team in the nation.
"I think it'll be a great game for the Mountain East Tournament," Richardson said. "Two teams that are 12 miles apart and we just played them. They know what we're going to do, we know what they're going to do, that's not going to change in the next 48 hours. We're excited for the opportunity. I think it's what our guys wanted; I don't think they'd have it any other way."
"The ball stops for everybody at some point," said Reid, reflecting on the eventual end of his college career. "It doesn't matter even if you're Michael Jordan, the ball stops eventually. I feel like there's no other way to go out than to play West Liberty."