WISE, Va. – Second-ranked Fairmont State showed no signs of rust after a 14-day layoff for the holidays against the University of Virginia's College at Wise here Tuesday evening at the Prior Center.
The unbeaten Falcons raced to a double digit lead less than six minutes into the game and rolled to a 103-79 victory. The win improved FSU to 11-0 overall and to 5-0 in the Mountain East Conference. Wise fell to 2-9 overall and to 0-5 in the league.
Senior forward Thomas Wimbush set the tone early for the Falcons scoring 18 of his team-high 22 points in the first half as Fairmont opened a 55-37 advantage at the break. Wimbush, who only played 18 minutes in the game, also pulled down six rebounds.
Five players reached double figures in the scoring department for Fairmont State and all 12 players who saw action for the Falcons in the game scored. D'Ondre Stockman finished with 14 points for FSU, Steven Solomon added a career-high 12 points, Matt Bingaya chipped in 11 points and eight rebounds and Andrew Emrick ended up with 10 points.
"I thought the guys were locked into the game plan tonight," FSU coach Jerrod Calhoun said. "We had four or five really good practices leading up to this game and I really think that's what led to tonight's solid performance.
"Our seniors have done a really good job of leading this team. They made sure we were ready to play and we got to play a lot of guys and got a lot of good minutes from guys like Stevie (Solomon), Ty Dobson and Shooter (Andrew Emrick).
"I also really thought we did a good job of sharing the basketball. We had 19 assists and just 12 turnovers so all in all I'm very pleased, but we've got to get ready for another tough one Thursday night."
Fairmont shot 53 percent from the field (37-of-70), including 37.5 percent from 3-point range (12-of-32). The Falcons also went 17-of-22 at the foul line (77.3 percent) and held a commanding 47-27 advantage on the boards.
FSU led by as many as 31 points on a couple of occasions in the second half before the Cavaliers rallied to close the final margin to 24.
Fairmont's Jason Jolly and Troy Cantrell both finished with seven points apiece. Cantrell also pulled down six rebounds. The Falcons also got a career-high six points from Dobson and five points and a game-high eight assists from Shammgod Wells.
Fairmont State transfer Taiwo Badmus led the Cavaliers against his former team with 22 points and six rebounds. Seventeen of Badmus' points came in the second half. Wise also got 17 points and six rebounds from Chance Sheffey and 15 points from Dimitri Sousa.
Wise shot 46.9 percent from the field (30-of-64), including just 6-of-19 from 3-point range (31.6 percent) in the loss. The Cavaliers also struggled at the foul line connecting on just 13-of-22 attempts (59.1 percent).
Fairmont State will remain on the road and tangle with Concord University Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. in an MEC game at the Carter Center in Athens.
