WHEELING, W.Va. – Fairmont State held off a late West Virginia State rally to advance past the Yellow Jackets, 95-87, on Friday evening in the quarterfinal round of the 2021 Mountain East Conference Tournament at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling.
 
With the win, Fairmont State improves to 13-4 on the season and advances to Saturday's semifinal round against top-seed and South Division Champion the University of Charleston. The matchup will be the first of two men's semifinals on Saturday and will tip at 5 p.m.
 
Fairmont State shot a season-high 56.7 percent from the field and made 11 three-pointers in the win. The Falcons shot 50 percent from three and made 16-of-22 attempts from the charity stripe in the win.
 
With Fairmont State leading by 21 (66-45) at the 16:05 mark in the second half, WVSU went on a furious 20-4 rally to cut the FSU lead to just five at the midway point of the second half.
 
The teams traded baskets over the next three and a half minutes before a layup by Jeremiah Moore at the 6:24 mark made the score 78-76 in favor of Fairmont State. However, the Falcons answered quickly by scoring nine of the next 11 points to put FSU back in front by nine (87-78) with 4:03 remaining.
 
From that point, West Virginia State did not cut the lead to less than a seven-point margin the rest of the way, allowing Fairmont State to come away with the 95-87 victory.
 
Fairmont State had three 20-point scorers in the victory, led by Dale Bonner with 29 points, five rebounds and six assists. Isaiah Sanders also chipped in 22 points despite battling foul trouble in both halves of action (played 28 minutes). Sanders was 7-of-10 from the field and 4-of-6 from three. Cole VonHandorf also had a big night for the Falcons with 20 points, shooting 9-of-14 from the field.
 
Zyon Dobbs also came off the bench and chipped in 10 points, while Seth Younkin dropped in nine points to go with seven boards.
 
Moore finished with a career- and game-high 41 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to lead the Yellow Jackets on Friday night. Moore shot 15-of-24 from the field and knocked down 10-of-13 free throw attempts. Anthony Pittman also chipped in 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Glen Abrams had 13 for WVSU.
 
West Virginia State shot 47 percent from the field and held a narrow 33-32 rebounding advantage in the game.
 
The Yellow Jackets wrapped up the 2021 season with a 9-7 overall record.