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URBANA, Ohio — The Urbana men's basketball team dropped Wednesday night's game against No. 8 West Liberty 91-78 inside the Grimes Center.
The Blue Knights fall to 5-10 (3-8 MEC) and the Hilltoppers improve to 14-2 (10-1 MEC).
// TEAM STATS
Urbana knocked down 11 treys on 52-percent shooting from beyond the arc and 48 percent in the contest, but West Liberty shot 54 percent from the field overall. The Blue Knights held the edge in bench points (26-25) and only had seven turnovers. The Hilltoppers out-rebounded the Blue Knights, 38-26.
// INDIVIDUAL STATS
UU had three players score in double digits, led by Ethan Snapp with 17 points on 5-of-6 shooting from three-point range. Malik Jacobs had 15 points and didn't miss from range (3-3), while Jordan Bradley produced 15 points. In addition, Datrey Long added nine points and a game-high eight rebounds.
West Liberty's Eric Meininger had a game-high of 26 points and was 8 of 9 in both field goals and free throws. Will Yoakum added 20 points (7-9 FG) with five rebounds. UU limited WLU's leading scorer Dalton Bolon (22.0 ppg) to only four points on 2-of-10 shooting.
// HOW IT HAPPENED
UU never led, but kept it close for the majority of the contest. WLU went ahead 41-35 at halftime after an entertaining first half from both sides.
The Hilltoppers started 4 of 5 from beyond the arc and led 14-11 at the first media timeout, but a Zach Bates layup made it a one-point game. A layup from Long made it a two-point game, 24-22, with under nine minutes left in the first half as the Blue Knights continued to hang around.
Then, a WLU layup extended its lead to nine, 37-28, but the Blue Knights made it a two-possession game when a Snapp 3-pointer sliced the deficit to four right before the break.
In the second half, WLU remained in control. A Jacobs 3-pointer with under eight minutes left made it 69-62 with under eight minutes left, but that was as close as the Blue Knights could get.
// UP NEXT
The Blue Knights will travel to South Euclid, Ohio for a conference matchup against Notre Dame College on Saturday with tipoff slated for 4 p.m.
