Cards Fall to Rival

West Liberty, WV, Jan. 18, 2010--- Monday night Wheeling Jesuit (8-5, 5-3) was unable to get much established during the initial 12 minutes of its game with the arch-rival Hilltoppers (11-1, &-1), which resulted in a quick 25-point deficit and an eventual loss.

Sophomore Pete Brogdon paced the Cardinals with 14 points, Obi Ukwuoma added 11 and freshman Branden Bazilio finished with 10. The team posted a 54.5 shooting percentage, hitting 30 of their 55 attempts. Ukwuoma grabbed seven of the team’s 36 rebounds.

Wheeling Jesuit was hitting 4 of 12 shots early on and finding no offensive rhythm, the Toppers were rolling to a 15-2 lead that eventually grew to 36-11 at the 8:46 mark of the first half.

It was nearly a minute later when the Cardinals finally found a groove, outscoring their rivals by a 26-20 margin during the final 7:40 of the half. However, that only allowed the visitors to pull to within 56-37 at the break.

The teams traded baskets for the first five minutes of the second half, unfortunately for Wheeling they were hitting twos while West Liberty was draining triples.

''You have got to be ready to play against a team like West Liberty and mentally we had two or three kids who weren't ready at the start,'' Sancomb said. ''You would think our game plan was to let them take 3s all night, but it sure wasn't."

''They did a good job driving the basketball into the seam and getting good looks off kick-out passes, and that is going to open up the long shots. You have to defend the 3 against them."

''We got down 19 and were trading twos for 3s and you can't do that.''