Will Vorhees took a pass from Ja'Sean Lewis and made a layup with 14.7 seconds to play to lift Notre Dame College to an 81-79 victory over West Virginia State Thursday night at the Walker Convocation Center.
Vorhees, a junior who finished with a game-high 27 points, pulled down his 19th rebound as the buzzer sounded after State's Cody Morris missed a 3-point attempt. The Yellow Jackets fell to 2-3 overall and 1-2 in Mountain East Conference play.
"That was a back-breaker for sure," West Virginia State coach Bryan Poore said. "I feel for our guys. To fight the way we did and have a winnable game like this, it's tough to look and see we didn't make the plays at the end to come up with this one.
"We need a win or two here to get us some confidence. We're still a work in progress and there's plenty left to play, but I believe in this group and we'll get there."
The two teams traded the lead back and forth throughout the majority of the second half, and West Virginia State appeared to seize the momentum late as Tyrie Elliott converted a four-point play to break a tie with less than four minutes to play. But that was the last time WVSU would score as Notre Dame continued to rally back into the game until Vorhees' bucket to win it.
The Falcons (5-2, 1-1 MEC) also got 16 rebounds from Lewis as Notre Dame College outrebounded West Virginia State 51-40. Drew Scarberry came off the bench to pour in 22 points, going 6 of 11 from 3-point range.
After forcing nine turnovers in the first 20 minutes, West Virginia State forced just four in the final 20 minutes. Notre Dame also blocked 12 shots, led by Vorhees' six.
"We played with some energy and pretty good heart, but if you give up that many rebounds and give a team that many opportunities, you're going to struggle," Poore said. "We've got to find a way to rebound the ball and do the things that we struggled to do tonight more consistently. We just have to be better defending and rebounding - that was a big problem at times tonight."
The game started about as well as it could have for West Virginia State, as the Yellow Jackets opened the game clicking on both ends of the floor.
Ernest Jenkins came out hot, scoring 15 of his team-high 23 points in the first half as the freshman helped put West Virginia State in the driver's seat.
With less than five minutes before the break, the Yellow Jackets were shooting close to 50 percent from the field, forcing turnovers seemingly at will and had built an 11-point advantage against the Falcons. But then Notre Dame made its run, tightening up defensively and making shots on the other end to work its way back into the game and make that WVSU lead vanish.
State made just one of its final 11 shots to end the half and went into the locker room tied at 42.
"We did a nice job there to start and then they made the run, but we have to be able to push through and weather the storm," Poore said. "We got the lead back in the second half but just couldn't hold on, and that shows some of our youth. We need to experience games like this sometimes to learn how to play in them."
Jenkins was joined in double figures with three other Yellow Jackets. Brent Bauer scored 16 points and handed out seven assists while Jayson Hankins and Elliott scored 13 and 10 points, respectively. Hankins also pulled down 10 rebounds to log the double-double.
Kyauta Taylor added 11 points for Notre Dame and Kobie Johnson had nine points and seven assists.
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.