WHEELING, W.Va. – The 10th-seed Urbana was knocked out of the Mountain East Conference Tournament Wednesday night following a disappointing 68-54 setback to seventh-seeded West Virginia Wesleyan in the opening round at WesBanco Arena.
Urbana (8-21) trailed 29-28 at halftime following an entertaining, back-and-forth first period. However, Wesleyan torched the nets in the second half to pull ahead of the Blue Knights.
The Bobcats opened with a 14-2 run and shot 63 percent (15-24) over the final 20 minutes. Wesleyan made 11 of its first 13 shots in the second half to move ahead 51-40 at the under-10 media timeout.
Tehree Horn hit a jumper to get Urbana back within single digits at 52-43 with 8:23 remaining. However, another 13-1 spurt from Wesleyan put the game out of reach.
Horn and
Matthew Ashley each led the Blue Knights with 10 points. Horn also grabbed five rebounds and dished out four assists.
Shaunn Monroe chipped in with nine points while
Kyle Kegley scored seven points with eight boards.
Urbana shot just 33 percent overall and 26 percent from three-point range, leading to its second-lowest point total of the season.
The Blue Knights had plenty of open looks from deep, but only knocked down 2 of 13 in the second half.
UU held the rebounding edge, 38-33, which led to 16 second-chance points.
"It's tough when the ball doesn't go down for you," Urbana coach Josh Gibson said. "We had some great looks that just didn't fall for us. It's difficult for that not to affect your defense.
"I thought they really did a nice job in the second half of establishing Vicentic. He's such a dominate force. When he gets the ball he does a great job. They just did a really nice job of making sure he got the ball inside.
"Then all night long (Daylin) Lee was really tough for them. He did a great job of finishing and using his athleticism to get to the rim. I thought he played a great game for 40 minutes."
Wesleyan's Daylin Lee recorded a game-high 24 points, including 14 in the first half. Lee finished 9 of 13 from the field with six rebounds. All-MEC selection Dusan Vicentic posted a double-double with 15 points and 11 boards.
The Bobcats outscored the Blue Knights 36-24 in points in the paint and dished out 17 assists on 27 made field goals.
Wesleyan (12-17) advances to play the second-seed University of Charleston on Friday.
Following the loss, Urbana remains winless at the MEC Tournament (0-5).
"Sometimes shots don't fall, but I still think we did a decent job of fighting," Blue Knights' guard
Darius Barksdale said. "They had some tough finishes and we had some balls which just didn't go our way. I still think we fought until the end though."
