FAIRMONT, W.Va. -- The Fairmont State men's basketball picked up an 83-71 Mountain East Conference victory tonight over West Virginia State after being down most of the contest. Isaiah Sanders also collected his 1,000th career point as a Fighting Falcon as he led Fairmont State with 25 points and now had 1,009 career points in his Falcon career.

The Fighting Falcons are now 6-1 overall and 3-1 in MEC play and the Yellow Jackets fall to 4-4 and 1-2 in conference action.

WVSU jumped out to 4-0 lead before Sanders hit a jumper inside the paint to get the Falcons on the board. Fairmont State after the made basket from Sanders went on a 10-0 to take their first lead of the game at 10-4 with 16:33 remaining in the first half. The Yellow Jackets regained the advantage at 21-19 after Bradlee Lewis collected a made field goal.

WVSU pushed the margin to nine points via an Ernest Jenkins' three with 3:58 in the half as the Yellow Jackets held the 33-24 edge. The Falcons chipped away at the Yellow Jacket lead as both sides went into the halftime break with WVSU holding the slight lead, 37-36, inside Joe Retton Arena.

In the second half, Abram collected back-to-back baskets to push the Yellow Jacket back to seven points with 16:45 left in regulation. Fairmont State cut the lead back to a single possession as Briggs Parris scored a triple off a pass from Zyon Dobbs. West Virginia State brought their lead back to seven points once more before Sanders cut into the deficit and made the score 56-53 in favor of the Yellow Jackets with 8:36 left in the second half.

The Falcons regained the lead once again after Cole VonHandorf scored five consecutive points and Sanders knocked down a three to put Fairmont State up 65-64 with 3:33 remaining. Four made points from th charity stripe by Sanders and Seth Younkin made the Falcon lead to five points as VonHandorf put an exclamation point on the Falcon run with a dunk as Fairmont State claimed the 71-64 margin with 1:58 left.

Parris collected another three-pointer and Dobbs finished home a dunk to give the Falcons their sixth victory of the season as they earned the 83-71 win against the visitors from West Virginia State.

Sanders led all scorers on the night with 25 points with eight made field goals as Dobbs followed his teammate with 23 points. VonHandorf chipped in 14 on 6-13 shooting from the floor and Seth Younkin collected a double-double with 11 points and 16 rebounds.

The Falcons were 27-69 (39.1%) from the field as they made nine three-pointers on the contest. Fairmont State was only 20-26 from the charity stripe and held the Yellow Jackets to a 41.3% (26-63) clip in the matchup.

Fairmont State (6-1, 3-1 MEC) is back at home on Wednesday, December 8th when they host 
Concord (4-5,2-2 MEC) for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off.