Notre Dame 92, West Liberty 90 (2 OT) | Final Stats
By Duane Cochran for MountainEast.org
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Rob Reed's off-balance 18-foot jumper between two West Liberty defenders with four-tenths of a second remaining banked in to give fourth-seeded Concord a thrilling 92-90 double-overtime victory over top-seeded and No. 1 ranked West Liberty here Saturday evening in the semifinals of the Mountain East Conference Tournament at the Charleston Civic Center.
The win, the second of the season for Concord over West Liberty when it was ranked No. 1 in the country, improved the Mountain Lions to 21-9 and puts them in Sunday's championship game at 3:30 p.m.
Reed's remarkable shot was the culmination of one of the best and most entertaining men's games in the brief history of the Mountain East Conference Tournament.
“I don't know if there's ever been a better game in the Mountain East Tournament,” Concord coach Kent McBride said. “I'd put that up against any of them. To do that against the No. 1 team in the country is amazing and the stat that stands out the most to me is we just played 50 minutes of basketball and two teams combined for 21 turnovers. That's clean basketball and efficient basketball. We didn't throw it to one another. We battled and battled and it's game I know this side will remember forever.”
West Liberty, which fell in the tournament semifinals for the second straight year, dropped to 27-3 with the loss. The Hilltoppers' season will continue in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional at a site which will be announced Sunday evening.
Senior forward Mike Lamberti was a hero twice last night for West Liberty. He nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 20 seconds left in regulation to force the first overtime and then connected on a pair of free throws with 39 seconds left to force the second extra five minutes.
In the second overtime neither team led by more than two. With 27 seconds left Hilltopper senior forward Seger Bonifant drove the lane and made a contested layup to knot the score at 90. After a timeout, Concord got the ball to Reed, who finished with a game-high 34 points and had been a thorn in the Hilltoppers' side all evening. The senior guard drove to the side and had thoughts of taking the ball to the rim, but slipped and fell under pressure from West Liberty's David Dennis. Reed got back up, stepped through a West Liberty double team from Dennis and Bonifant and launched the game-winning shot.
“Coach drew up the play and asked me if I wanted the ball and of course I said yes,” Reed said. “I stepped out, got the ball and I was going to take it all the way to the basket but I slipped down and fell when help came. They didn't call a foul so when I got up I stepped threw clean and just tried to throw it up. I knew it wouldn't go straight in, but I thought if I could get if off of the glass it would have a chance and here we are.”
West Liberty alertly inbounded the ball three quarters of the way down the court to Bonifant, who got off a desperation 17-foot shot which grazed the bottom of the rim as time expired.
“It was an exciting game,” West Liberty coach Jim Crutchfield said. “I thought both teams played really hard. We had some opportunities and put ourselves in positions to win the game after having one foot in the grave in regulation. I credit our guys for never quitting.
“Rob Reed is hard to stop. The last shot he took is the kind of shot I would have wanted him to take. However, it went it. It's not about not letting him shoot, it's about making him take a tough shot and he made a tough shot and it won the game.”
In addition to Reed's 34 points the Mountain Lions got 16 points and 19 rebounds from senior center Terry Hopewell. Concord also got 14 points and nine rebounds from junior guard Aaron Miller and 12 points and five assists from junior point guard Michael Sanchez.
Bonifant led West Liberty with 33 points and six rebounds. The Hilltoppers also got 16 points from Devin Hoehn, 14 points and 11 rebounds from Lamberti, 14 points and 10 boards from Dennis and seven points and a game-high 22 rebounds from Zac Grossenbacher. The 22 rebounds was a single-game MEC Tournament record. Grossenbacher also established a new MEC Tournament record for total rebounds with 33 in just two games. That record could be broken Sunday by Hopewell, who currently has 28 in two games with one more contest to play.
Notre Dame 76, Wheeling Jesuit 68 | Final Stats
By Rich Stevens for MountainEast.org
First, Glenville State and now, Notre Dame.
In two of the first three years of the Mountain East Conference men’s basketball tournament, underdogs have upset their way to the title game.
Senior guard Tyree Gaiter poured in 39 points, hitting 10 of his 15 shot attempts and all 16 of his free throw tries, in the Falcons’ 76-68 victory over Wheeling Jesuit (28-3), second-seeded in the tournament and fourth-ranked in the National Association of Basketball Coaches’ Poll.
“We’ve been playing these playoff games for the last three weeks,” said Notre Dame coach Tim Koenig, whose team will receive the MEC’s first automatic bid with a victory over Concord in Sunday’s tournament final at 3:30 p.m. “When we were ranked 10th in the region, they were playoff games, so it’s good we have some practice.”
The Falcons (21-10) lost four of their last six regular season games, which included a 16-point loss at home to Fairmont, a 10-point defeat at Concord and a 20-point home loss to Wheeling Jesuit. Notre Dame eliminated Fairmont, the tournament’s third seed and nation’s fifth-ranked team, on Thursday in the quarterfinals.
Last year, fifth-seeded Glenville eliminated West Liberty (No. 1 seed) and Fairmont (No. 2) in winning the second MEC tournament.
For Notre Dame’s part, the Falcons were guided by a smallish guard in Gaiter, who is listed at a generous 5-foot-7.
His 39 points came on a 10-15 performance from the field and 16-16 from the foul line. He added five rebounds and added four assists while detecting gaps in an otherwise staunch Wheeling Jesuit defense.
“Their help defense is one of the best in the league,” Gaiter said. “When we start going one-high ball screen, it opens the lanes for me. I knew once I could get in there, I could find one of our big guys when they collapsed on me.”
Sophomore Will Vorhees was the recipient of some of those passes. The 6-8 forward made just four of his 16 shot attempts, but finished with 1 points and 10 rebounds. Ja’Sean Lewis had 12 rebounds for Notre Dame and senior Ryan Hickoff had 12 points and five rebounds without a turnover.
“They beat us in hustle plays, tied us on the boards and won in toughness plays … the 50-50 plays that are so crucial in meaningful games,” Wheeling Jesuit coach Danny Sancomb said. “They dominated us.”
Justin Fritts led Wheeling Jesuit with 18 points and Eric Siefert added 11. Haywood Highsmith had 10 points but he and Siefert combined to shoot 8-23 from the field.
The Cardinals entered the game as the No. 1 team in the Atlantic Region and are expected to remain there and host the regional tournament at the McDonough Center.