FAIRMONT, W.Va. – Fifth-ranked Fairmont State outlasted Notre Dame College, 93-80, on Saturday evening inside Joe Retton Arena to improve to 23-1 on the season (17-1 MEC).
Following a three by Notre Dame's KT Taylor to cut the Fairmont State lead to just two (76-74) at the 5:03 mark of the second half, FSU finished the game on a 17-6 scoring run to close out a Notre Dame team that led for 14:46 this afternoon and became just the second team to hold a lead over Fairmont State at the half. The only other team to lead Fairmont at the half this season was West Liberty back on Dec. 4.
A pair of FSU seniors reached new milestones this afternoon, as
Thomas Wimbush became just the 29
th player in Fairmont State men's basketball history to reach 1,500 career points. Wimbush, who needed eight points coming into the game to reach 1,500, scored a team-high 24 points and pulled down nine rebounds in the victory.
In addition,
Matt Bingaya became just the fifth two-year player in program history to score 1,000 points. Bingaya scored 22 points and pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds and now has exactly 1,000 points in his two years at Fairmont State.
The Falcons also got 17 points and five assists from
Shammgod Wells and
D'Ondre Stockman continued to bury shots from the outside, draining five three-pointers to also add 17 points for FSU.
Notre Dame College shot nearly 52 percent from the field and outscored Fairmont 52-36 in the paint. However, Notre Dame made just 3-of-22 attempts (13.6%) from behind the arc. Fairmont managed just 43 percent from the field, but dropped in 10 threes on the afternoon.
The Falcons scored 26 points off turnovers, compared to just 10 for Notre Dame. FSU forced 19 turnovers in the win.
Will Vorhees paced Notre Dame (15-9, 9-9 MEC) with 20 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in the loss. NDC also got 16 points from Taylor and 14 from Drew Scarberry.
FSU will now prepare for three-straight road games, starting with a trip to Institute for a 7:30 p.m. tip against West Virginia State on Thursday evening.
