MBB: Glenville State, Notre Dame Move On to Friday
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#7 Glenville State 95, #10 Frostburg State 59
By Duane Cochran for MountainEast.org
WHEELING – Seventh-seeded Glenville State wanted to make sure 10th-seeded Frostburg State’s first-ever appearance in the Mountain East Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament wouldn’t necessarily be a memorable one.It didn’t take the Pioneers long to succeed in doing that.
Glenville used a 10-0 run late in the first half to take control of its contest with the Bobcats and then opened the final 20 minutes of play on a 27-11 spurt en route to a 33-point lead in the first 9:30 and eventually a 95-59 victory here Wednesday evening in the opening round of the annual tournament at WesBanco Arena.
The 36-point margin of victory was the second-highest in league tournament history.
“I thought we did a terrific job defensively,” first-year Glenville coach Bob Bolen said. “We held Frostburg to 29 percent shooting from the field. For about the last two-and-a-half weeks our defense has really picked up.
“We got into our running game about midway through the first half. I thought that was a big key – getting defensive stops and getting into our running game. Our guys did a great job of making decisions tonight.”
The win improved Glenville State to 14-15 and earns the Pioneers a spot in Friday’s quarterfinals at 2:30 p.m. against second-seeded West Liberty.
Frostburg State, on the other hand, closed out the season with a 3-26 record.
In an earlier meeting this season between the two teams the Pioneers had built a 28-point lead only to see the Bobcats rally back to as close as nine in the waning minutes. GSU’s Devin Collins, who finished with 17 points and nine rebounds, says the Pioneers were determined not to let that happen again.
“We were up 19 at the half and we knew once we got to 25 we weren’t letting up,” Collins said. “At Frostburg we were up around 30 and they started hitting shots and got it back to single digits. Fortunately that didn’t happen tonight. I thought we did a really good job of guarding them and getting on the boards and rebounding.”
The Pioneers turned in a record-setting performance in the victory. Glenville grabbed a single-game tournament record 64 rebounds, which was 33 more than Frostburg had in the contest.
GSU also got 17 points and a tournament single-game tying record 12 assists from guard Jordan Turbo Smith. He tied Notre Dame College’s Tyre Gaiter, who set the assist record in 2016.
“Coming into the game we were all locked in,” Smith said. “We came together, knew what we wanted to do and knew what we had to do to win this game.
“We were dedicated to winning this game by double digits. We made shots, made good reads and got the job done.”
The Pioneers also got 12 points from James Franklin, 11 points from Dominiq Penn and 10 points from Jaelin Johnson.
First-year Frostburg coach Zach Thomsen says his squad battled all night to try to overcome a rough start against the Pioneers.
“We got off to a little bit of a rough start tonight to say the least,” Thomsen said. “Anytime you shoot 29 or 30 percent from the field you’re going to have a tough time. On top of that we gave up 95 points. That’s obviously not a good combination.
“We got off to a tough start and unfortunately that’s been a bit of a theme for us this season. Tonight we were just never really able to get it back. It got away from us and kept going in the wrong direction.”
No Frostburg player was able to reach double figures in the scoring column in the game. The Bobcats were led by Logan Lewis, Malcolm Day, Robbie Williams, JayShaun Freeman and Vilius Slanina, who all finished with eight points apiece. Lewis also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds in the loss.
“As a group we knew what we had to do, but I feel like in some ways we didn’t do a lot of those things,” Lewis said. “Rebounding, playing defense, staying in front of your man were things we talked about all week that we had to do in this game in order to come out of it with a win. I just feel like in some aspects we didn’t do them and it cost us.”
#8 Notre Dame 100, #9 Wheeling 98 (OT)
WHEELING – RJ Ogom’s layup with 21 seconds remaining gave Notre Dame College the lead for good and lifted the Falcons to a 100-98 overtime victory over Wheeling in the opening round of the 2024 MEC Men’s Basketball Tournament, presented by The Health Plan.
The layup was the 12th lead change in a game that Wheeling led for nearly 29 minutes. The teams were also tied 13 time on the evening.
Notre Dame advances to Friday’s quarterfinal round against top-seeded Charleston. Tip is set for 6 p.m. at WesBanco Arena.
With 48 seconds remaining in regulation, Notre Dame’s Andre Harris gave the Falcons the lead on a transition layup. However, Wheeling’s Sean Ealy drew a foul with 29 seconds remaining and drained both free throws to send the game into overtime.
Harris finished with a game-high 30 points and eight rebounds. He drew 11 fouls on the offensive end. Gbolahan Adio finished with 20 points, shooting 7-of-11 from the field with five 3-pointers. Devin Haid and Joshua Dames also chipped in 16 points of the Falcons.
For the game, Notre Dame shot 55 percent from the floor (35-of-64) and 46 percent from three (11-of-24). The Falcons scored 46 points in the paint and 14 on the fast-break.
Wheeling also had a solid night on the offensive end, shooting 48 percent from the floor (32-of-67), including a sizzling 58 percent in the opening half (18-of-31).
Marcus Johnson and Sean Ealy scored 24 points apiece to lead the Cardinals. Alex Smith (13), Tee Harris (12) and SJ Hutchinson (10) also reached double-figures for Wheeling.