Cardinals Come Back, Defeat Bears

Jesuit Comes to life in Second Half

By Tracy Watson For The Intelligencer

Having lost three games in the final minute of play and two on the final shot of the game, Wheeling Jesuit University entered the Main Street Bank Classic as a youthful, snake-bitten team that was coming off a 14-day break.

However, after using the first 10 minutes of Monday night's game against Pikeville (Ky) College to shake off the cobwebs, the Cardinals came to life, erased a 12-point deficit and put on a show at the end.

Senior leader Maqsood Harrington tallied a game-high 28 points and Zanesville High graduate Cedric Harris added 21 while bringing the fans to their feet with a pair of late sensational plays as Wheeling Jesuit used a closing 15-5 run to record a surprising 93-86 victory against the Bears at the Alma Grace McDonough Center.

Coach Danny Sancomb, who has watched his team stumble to a 3-5 record, also got to watch them grow up a little with Monday night's performance.

''This is a young team that has played young at times, but we have also lost some very tough games,'' Sancomb said. ''(Monday) they followed the game plan, did everything that we asked them to do and got a big win.''

After falling behind by a 20-8 count at the 12:38 mark of the first, Harrington and Harris sparked a late first-half run that included an 11-4 spurt, as the Cardinals took their first lead at 36-35 on a Adam McFerran putback.

Freshman Steve Catich later sent Wheeling Jesuit to the half with a 43-41 lead when he drained a pair of free throws with less than a second showing.

The teams battled back and forth in the second half before the Cardinals took control late. Pikeville's Haakim Johnson gave the visitors an 80-78 lead on a monster-slam off an inbounds pass before Ewan Linton pushed the margin to three with a free throw a short time later.

But Johnson's flush was the final Bears' field goal until the game was already decided.

A Harrington 3 knotted the count before he gave his team the lead for good on layin off a turnover. Harris then converted a circus layup at 2:04 to make it a four-point game before an unbelievable pass to Joe Suchy brought the fans to their feet once again and made it 87-81 with 1 minute to go.

In all, Coach Kelly Wells' Pikeville squad, which fell to 10-4, turned the ball over five times in the final 3:04 of play and went more than 4 minutes without a field goal down the stretch.

''When you take 14 days off you can come out a little rusty and we did,'' Sancomb said. ''But we always play hard, and once we got into the flow we really got going. We made the plays we needed to make down the stretch.

''Maqsood Harrington is our leader and he is solid every night. He is the captain of this team for a reason and he hit a big 3 late and played solid defense on their best player at the end. We asked him to step up and he did just that.

''I think Cedric (Harris) struggled a little and didn't play his best game, but he has been sick and he always gives his best effort.''

Obi Ukwuoma added 11 points for the winners with Suchy chipping in 10. Josh Samarco dazzled the crowd with his moves and long-distance treys and finished with a team-high 22 for the Bears. Justin Hicks added 21 in a losing effort while J.B. Smiley had 17.

The Cardinals return to action tonight at 8 p.m. against nationally-ranked Bellarmine, an 88-85 victor against West Liberty on Monday.