North Panhandle Times

Offense Leads the Way as Men’s Basketball Takes Down Frostburg State

Throughout the 2022-23 season, the Wheeling University Men's Basketball team (3-13, 1-9) have suffered several close losses in the final minute of games. On Saturday afternoon, they went down to Frostburg State and had the ball roll their way as they took down the Bobcats 83-78. It was the Cardinals first Mountain East Conference (MEC) win of the season as they try to fight their way back into the MEC Tournament race here in January.

As they have so many times this year, the offense came out strong in the first half as Marcus Johnson hit a three to get the offense going. It would start a 7-2 run for the Cardinals over the game's first two and a half minutes as the team took an early lead. Four straight Bobcat points brought the game back to a one-point affair but Johnson was at it again with a layup that made it a 9-6 Cardinal lead with 16:27 to go in the first half. Brent Price continued the run with a layup and after the first media timeout the Cardinals were on an 8-2 run to make it a 15-8 game. Johnson was responsible for nine of those early points and he continued his stccess throughout the game. After the Bobcats battled back to make it 15-12, John Korte hit a free throw as he was just getting started on what would be another big day for the senior.

As the clock ticked past the ten minutes mark, the Cardinals held a 23-16 lead after a jumper from George Taylor III. As the first half ticked away, Johnson added four more points to his ledger and Taylor added a three to make it a 30-24 game. Korte added a layup to complete the short 4-0 run and the Cardinals were up 32-24 with 6:18 to go before the half. The Cardinals defense stepped up, allowing just four Bobcat points in the span of three minutes and with just over four minutes to play in the half Brent Price hit a three-pointer that made it a 37-26 game. The Cardinals would score seven points over the final four minutes of the half, with the big blow being a Johnson three, and Wheeling went into the half leading 44-37. Johnson had a big first half, scoring 18 of his 22 points in the first 20 minutes as the Cardinals looked to keep the momentum going in the second half.

Korte got the second half started with a dunk and the Cardinals were off again up 46-37. Korte would add another three pointer a few minutes later, but a 6-3 Bobcat run cut the Cardinals lead to six with 17:45 to play. Both defenses were strong for the next two minutes, but Frostburg State's Jason Murphy hit a shot that cut the Wheeling lead to 49-45. Taylor hit a three to extend the Cardinals lead and a bucket by Frostburg State made it 52-47 as the first media timeout hit. Brent Price hit a pair of free throws coming out of the media timeout and added a three-pointer to help create a 7-2 run that made it 59-49 with 11:31 left in the game. Korte hit a jumper as the 10 minute mark ticked away and Wheeling headed into the final stretch looking to hold their lead.

After the second media timeout, William Gabbert came out and hit a two-pointer to extend their lead to 63-54. However, the Bobcats weren't done yet as they went on a 5-0 run that made it a four-point game with 5:58 to play. Wheeling responded with a 6-0 run of their own, highlighted by layups from Price and Kevin Coleman JR. and Wheeling was back on top 69-59 by the game's final media timeout. Frostburg State's Jalen Albury would bring it back to a six point game at 70-63, the Cardinals would go on the run that finalized the game. John Korte accounted for six points on the team's 6-2 run and moved the Wheeling lead to 76-65. Wheeling was able to hold the lead over the final two and a half minutes of the game and the Cardinals walked away with their first conference win of the season 83-78.

After being held to just nine points in the first half, John Korte broke out in the second half for 18 points and finished with 27 points. After scoring 30 on Wednesday night, the senior has now accounted for 57 points on the week as he put together his best week of his collegiate career. Marcus Johnson used a big first half to put together a strong game, finishing with 22 points on the night and shooting 8-14 from the floor. Two more Cardinals would finish with double digit points on the night as Brent Price scored 14 and George Taylor III set a new career-high with 13 points on the night, that included a perfect 3-3 night from three-point range. The Cardinals moved to 1-9 in conference play on the season and are moved into a tie with Frostburg State and West Virginia Wesleyan for that covered #10 seed in the conference.

The Wheeling University Men's Basketball team returns to action on Wednesday, January 18th, when they host Notre Dame College with tip-off at 7:30 PM. 

Original source can be found here