INSTITUTE – The West Virginia State University men's basketball team opened the season with a 96-89 loss to Thomas More University on Tuesday night at the Walker Convocation Center.
Carson Tangness led the Yellow Jackets with 19 points and eight rebounds, while Zahki Fallen added 18 points on 7-of-15 shooting. Marlon Landingham scored 14 points, while Quian Henderson added 12 points and Alex Garcia chipped in 11.
Thomas More built an early 11-3 lead just over two minutes into the game. Loakkhae Uth-Smith hit a 3-pointer to get WVSU on the board, followed shortly by a Fallen layup and a driving layup from Henderson to pull the Yellow Jackets within four at 13-9.
After the Saints extended their margin to 21-11, Gale Lamb buried a 3-pointer with 10 minutes remaining in the half to trim the deficit to 21-14. WVSU pulled within four at 6:22 when Garcia finished an alley-oop from Landingham to cap a 6-2 Yellow Jackets run. Thomas More held off the surge, but WVSU scored the final four points of the period on a pair of Tangness free throws and a late Christian Kennard layup to head into halftime trailing 41-34.
Fallen scored the first five points of the second half for WVSU, converting a layup and a 3-pointer to bring the Yellow Jackets within 46-39. Henderson added a layup on the following possession to cut the margin to five. Later in the half, Landingham hit two free throws and Shuler followed with a layup to bring WVSU within four at 56-52. Landingham converted another layup at the 5:56 mark to cap a 9-4 run and pull the Yellow Jackets within 75-71.
After Thomas More pushed its lead back to 82-75, WVSU made a final push to trim the margin to 84-80 with under three minutes to play. The Saints then converted 10-of-15 free throws in the closing minutes to secure the 96-89 victory.
WVSU hosts the Earl Lloyd Classic on Friday and Saturday at the Walker Convocation Center.
