SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – Notre Dame College held off a late surge by Fairmont State to pick up an 85-83 victory over Fairmont State in head coach Tim Koenig's return to the Murphy Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon in South Euclid.
 
Notre Dame finished the game by shooting 54 percent from the field, including 40 percent from behind the arc. Fairmont State shot 46 percent from the field.
 
Following the upset victory, Notre Dame College improves to 4-10 on the year, including 2-6 in Mountain East Conference play. Fairmont dropped to 10-3 overall and 5-3 in MEC play, seeing its three-game winning streak come to an end.
 
After Notre Dame took its largest lead of the game, 77-69, at the 3:16 mark of the second half, Dale Bonner and Kenzie Melko-Marshall drained threes on back-to-back possessions to trim the NDC advantage to just four (79-75) at the 1:50 mark. Notre Dame's Bruce Hodges III split the Fairmont State possessions with a layup during the stretch.
 
Following Melko's three, Levi Franklin cashed in with a pair of shots from the charity stripe, before Isaiah Sanders answered on the offensive end with a tip-in to keep Notre Dame's advantage at four (81-77) with 43 seconds remaining.
 
With NDC leading by five (84-79) after DeAnthony Owens went 1-of-2 from the line with just under 30 seconds remaining, Melko finished strong at the rim and completed a three-point play at the charity stripe to make the deficit just two at 84-82.
 
On the ensuing inbounds pass, Bonner came up with the ball and was fouled on the fast break, earning the opportunity to tie the game at the charity stripe with just under 25 seconds remaining. Bonner went 1-of-2 from the line and the Falcons immediately fouled to send Drew Scarberry to the line at the opposite end. Scarberry also went 1-of-2 from the line to push the lead back to 85-83 with 21 seconds to play.
 
On Scarberry's miss, Hodges tipped the rebound out and it was gathered by Scarberry to give the home team another possession and shot clock.
 
Following the offensive rebound, Fairmont State once again fouled Scarberry, this time with just nine seconds remaining. After Scarberry rimmed off both free throw attempts, Bonner gained possession for Fairmont State and attempted to tie the game at the rim before being fouled with just 2.0 seconds remaining.
 
Bonner's first free throw rimmed off, and he was forced to intentionally miss the second attempt. NDC grabbed the rebound on the intentional miss and wrapped up the hard-fought 85-83 victory.
 
In addition to having a better shooting performance from the field, NDC also outrebounded Fairmont State by 10 (39-29).
 
Fairmont State had four players reach double-figures on the afternoon, including a team-high 22 points from Bonner. The Falcons also got 18 point from Melko, and 16 points and seven assists from Cole VonHandorf. Isaiah Sanders also chipped in 10 points, and Jacob Brown led the Falcons on the glass with nine rebounds.
 
Notre Dame got a game-high 23 points and eight rebounds from Drew Scarberry. Jordan Burton also chipped in 17 points, while Owens finished with 14 points, five rebounds and five assists.
 
Fairmont State will now prepare for its first meeting against West Liberty on Wednesday evening at the ASRC. Tip is set for 7:30 p.m.