By Duane Cochran for MountainEast.org
WHEELING, W.Va. -- It was a tale of two halves here in Friday evening's last quarterfinal round game of the Mountain East Conference Men's Basketball Tournament at WesBanco Arena.
In the opening half fifth-seeded Wheeling could do little wrong and took control of the game with fourth-seeded West Virginia State taking a 35-27 lead into the halftime locker room.
The final 20 minutes, however, was a completely different story. The Yellow Jackets could do little wrong and Wheeling didn't do much of anything right. As a result, State wiped out the Cardinals' eight-point halftime lead with a 21-6 spurt to start the second half en route to a 67-61 victory.
The win improved the Yellow Jackets to 19-9 on the year and earned them a spot in Saturday's semifinals against top-seeded West Liberty at 6 p.m. The Hilltoppers (25-4) eliminated Concord in the quarterfinals Friday, 100-85. West Virginia State and West Liberty split their regular-season series.
"Wow," said veteran West Virginia State coach Bryan Poore. "It really was a tale of two halves. The first half we couldn't put the ball in the basket and the second half we shot it quite a bit better."
State shot just 33.3 percent from the field in the first half connecting on 10-of-30 field goals. Seven of those 10 field goals came in the game's first 6:26 as the Yellow Jackets built an early 16-9 lead. After that State managed just three field goals, two of which were 3-pointers from Glen Abram, who led the Yellow Jackets with 30 points. As a result, Wheeling closed the opening 13:34 on a 26-11 run to take an eight-point halftime lead.
"I thought we played excellent in the first half," said first-year Wheeling coach Will Ryan, whose team was picked to finish last in the preseason MEC coaches poll, but ended up fifth and finished the season with a 14-13 record. "We got out and ran a little bit and got some easy baskets. We moved the ball pretty well and got some good looks. We could have finished better. We struggled finishing around the rim. Their length and athleticism bothered us.
"In the second half they sat in the zone the whole half and we couldn't throw it in the ocean. We struggled to score and didn't generate enough points from the free throw line. Unfortunately, we went through too many lulls in the second half and it ended up doing us in."
State connected on 50 percent of its second-half field goal attempts (13-of-26), while Wheeling went just 9-of-31 from the floor (29 percent) in the final 20 minutes.
That, coupled with a 2-3 zone, which at times turned into a 2-1-2, allowed the Yellow Jackets to frustrate the Cardinals and get a 21-6 run in the first 11:20 of the second half which turned the tide of the game.
"In the second half we got switches on their bigs and got to the rim and then saw a couple of shots go through and that really helped us," Abram said. "We had a good game plan and stuck with it."
Poore says his team settled in and played better in the final 20 minutes.
"I think waiting around all day to play hurt us," he said. "I don't think they changed their defense in the second half. I think more than anything it took us a half to settle in and to get kind of comfortable out there. Then the shots started falling."
Wheeling guard Jordan Reid almost single-handedly kept his team in the game in the final 20 minutes. Reid, who led the Cardinals with 24 points, scored 15 of his team's 26 second-half points. No other Wheeling player had more than five points in the final 20 minutes.
"I was getting looks because of my teammates, but they just packed it in the paint a lot on me," Reid said. "That's something I've got to get better at. I've got to shoot the ball better. The last four or five games they've been packing the paint on me or double-teamming me. We've just got to get better and hit shots. Coach has been preaching to us all season about hitting shots. We've been practicing and practicing, but they just haven't been able to fall for us at a high clip."
Despite its second-half lulls the Cardinals were never really out of the game and with 32 seconds remaining had cut State's lead to three at 64-61 on a 3-pointer by Jarett Haines. Abram, though, went 3-of-4 at the foul line in the final 23 seconds to help keep Wheeling at bay.
West Virginia State's Anthony Pittman was the only other Yellow Jacket to reach double figures in the win. He finished with a double-double, scoring 11 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. Ten of his points came in the second half.
State also got nine points from both Frank Agyemang and Michal Seals. Seals also had a game-high five assists.
Besides Reid, Wheeling had Emmanuel Ansong and Haines reach double digits in the scoring column. Ansong finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds to post his fourth double-double of the year, while Haines ended up with 11 points and nine boards.
Saturday will be the first-ever appearance in the MEC Tournament semifinals for West Virginia State.
