Men's Basketball | 2/24/2018 7:03:00 PM
Box Score
WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – No. 25-ranked Wheeling Jesuit shot a blistering 60 percent from the floor in the second half here Saturday to shock No. 5 West Liberty, 84-74, in a mutual regular-season finale before an overflow crowd at the ASRC.
The loss not only snapped a 47-game home winning streak for Coach
Ben Howlett's Mountain East Conference champion Hilltoppers (25-2, 20-2), it also cast a pall over Senior Day festivities for WLU's senior trio of Dan Monteroso, Brandon Smith and Jordan Watson.
"Give all the credit to Wheeling Jesuit," Howlett said. "They won all the 50-50 battles in terms of loose balls and rebounds plus they shot the ball really well. I have three seniors who are hurting pretty bad right now and that's who I feel sorry for. We wanted to go out and win this game for them and we didn't get the job done."
While the Cardinals (22-5, 18-4) had a good shooting night, that wasn't the case for the Black and Gold.
One of the top 3-point shooting teams in the nation, the Hilltoppers trailed just 40-35 at the half after making just 3-of-15 3-point attempts. Unfortunately for the hosts, things only got worse from there as WLU finished the night shooting 19 percent (6-of-31) from behind the arc – the lowest of the season.
"For the most part, I thought we had pretty good looks," Howlett said. "We just couldn't get the shots to go down."
Coupled with WJU's accuracy from the floor, it made for a deadly combination.
West Liberty battled back to force a couple of ties in the early minutes of the second half but was never able to get over the hump as the hot-shooting Cardinals answered every surge.
Wheeling Jesuit took its largest lead of the night, 61-49, on a Preston Boswell 3-pointer at the 12:24 mark and WLU spent the rest of the game playing catch-up.
The Hilltoppers made one last run, trimming the margin to 78-74 on a pair of James Griffin free throws with 50 seconds remaining. They fouled Pat Moseh on the in-bounds and caught a break when Moseh missed both free throws but WJU's Drake Goddard outleaped two West Liberty players for the biggest rebound of the night.
Goddard was quickly fouled and made 1-of-2 free throws but the Hilltoppers missed at the other end and Boswell scored on a runout to seal the upset.
Monteroso led all scorers with 26 points and grabbed a team-high 9 rebounds while Dalton Bolon and Griffin added 13 and 11 points, respectively. Eric Meininger made a run at a triple-double with a career-high 9 assists to go along with 7 points and 7 rebounds.
"I loved playing with these guys on the floor in front of these fans," Monteroso said. "I'm really grateful to Coach Howlett for giving me the chance to come back to basketball. It means a lot to me.
"I know we've had a good year, going 25-2 and winning the conference championship after being picked to finish third but losing this one hurts. It's going to take me a while to get over it."
Haywood Highsmith led Wheeling Jesuit with 23 points and 13 rebounds while Moseh finished with 21 points and 11 assists. Boswell rounded out the double-figure scorers with 19 points.
"I want to approach this loss as a blessing in disguise," Howlett said. "We've lost games late in the season before and it's helped us get re-focused and dialed in for some deep tournament runs. We're going to get back to work this week and come out ready to play in Charleston."
With a bye through the first round as the No. 1 seed, West Liberty won't make its MEC Tournament debut until Friday when the Hilltoppers take the court in a 6 p.m. quarterfinal against the winner of a first-round matchup between West Virginia State and West Virginia Wesleyan.
