North Panhandle Times

Men’s Basketball Opens Home February Slate Against West Virginia Wesleyan

As the cold air of February moves in, things are heating up around the Mountain East Conference (MEC) as all 12 teams are trying to claim their spot in the 2023 MEC Tournament. The Wheeling University Men's Basketball team (5-16, 3-12) opened the month on the road, but return home on Saturday when they host West Virginia State at 4 PM. The Cardinals look for a bounce back effort at home as they try to stake their claim to at least the number 10 team in the conference. 

Last time out, the Cardinals took on The University of Charleston in a game that would come down to the final minutes of play. Early on, the Cardinal's offense struggled to get going and they fell behind 22-6 over the first seven minutes of play. The Cardinals would have to pick themselves up by their bootstraps and, as halftime approached, they were able to cut their deficit to 47-37. The Golden Eagles would maintain their ten point lead up until the five-minute mark, when a Cardinal layup made it a 73-70 game. The Cardinals would battle all the way back to tie the game at 80-80 with just over a minute to play, but Charleston clinched the game from the free throw line as they went on to win 86-83. It was a valiant come from behind effort for the team as they look to bring that energy back to their home court. 

After being held to just nine points the game before, John Korte got back to his usual ways as he put up a team-high 26 points in the loss. Korte brought his average back to 20.3 points per game and is one of just three players to average 20 points or more in the MEC this season. He sits at #3 in the conference in scoring behind Notre Dame College's Jaedon Willis (22.0) and West Liberty's Bryce Butler (22.9). Korte is also on the hunt for his 1,000th career point and enters play on Saturday just 74 points shy of accomplishing the feat. Korte also led the defensive effort with eight rebounds on the night. 

The other 20+ point scorer in the game was Marcus Johnson, who finished with 24 points and tied for the team lead shooting 10-17 from the floor. Johnson has been over the 20-point mark in three of the last four games for the Cardinals and is averaging 17.8 points per game during that stretch. The Cardinals have also been getting a spark off the bench as of late and this time it came from sophomore William Gabbert. Gabbert put up 13 points on the night with nine of those points coming from three-point range. The Cardinals as a team shot a healthy 51.6% from the floor, however, a 29.6% shot from three-point range would end up being their downfall. 

The Cardinals enter the final three and a half weeks of the season looking to ensure their spot in the 2023 MEC Tournament. They enter play on Saturday with a hold on the #10 seed, sitting one game ahead of Frostburg State and West Virginia Wesleyan. The Cardinals will have a chance to play spoiler down the stretch, with three of their next four games coming against teams in the top six seeds of the conference standings and two of those games come on their home court. The Cardinals are putting their foot on the gas offensively as of late and look to continue that momentum into this weekend's games. 

The Matchup 

The Cardinals and Yellow Jackets wrap up the 2022-23 regular season series with their 38th meeting all-time on Saturday. Wheeling holds the advantage in the all-time series, with a record of 19-18, and are an impressive 11-5 against the Yellow Jackets on their home court. The Cardinals enter the contest looking to break a five-game losing skid against West Virginia State dating back to February 8th, 2020, at the end of the 2019-20 season. 

In their first meeting of the season, the Cardinals fell to West Virginia State on the road in a 94-82 contest. Marcus Johnson led the way in that first meeting, putting up 18 points while leading the defensive effort with eight rebounds. Ryan Reasbeck was a spark off the bench in that game, scoring 14 points, while John Korte (12) and Brent Price (10) each finished in double figures. 

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