No. 8 Wheeling Jesuit used a balanced attack to gradually build up a lead and pick up a 95-85 win over West Virginia State Thursday night at the Walker Convocation Center in Institute.
The Cardinals had eight players score at least seven points, led by the double-double performance of Kyle Ritz, who scored 19 points and pulled down 16 rebounds.
"That's a good team and they've got a lot of guys who have been in that program for two or three years and really know what they're doing in the system they run," West Virginia State coach Bryan Poore said. "We just played our second top-8 team and we had some chances and were in the game. So now we have to stay together. We've got to stay together as a team, that's the most important thing right now."
WJU held the lead for nearly 35 of the 40 minutes but never built the advantage up into double digits for longer than a few minutes. That steady performance from the Cardinals allowed them to control the game while West Virginia State struggled to make a run to get the lead down.
The loss was the second in three days for West Virginia State (5-7, 2-4 Mountain East Conference) as the Yellow Jackets dropped their second decision to a nationally ranked team. Much like in the loss to West Liberty earlier in the week, Poore saw several missed opportunities from his group that helped to allow Wheeling Jesuit (11-1, 5-1) to keep a stranglehold on the lead.
"We were a little fatigued from that game the other day, and we didn't shoot the ball well at all," Poore said. "That's probably the worst we've shot the ball all year and I think a big part of that was because our legs are gone. Our young guys aren't really used to playing in this league and having two really tough games like this in three days."
Coming into the game, West Virginia State was the best 3-point shooting team in the MEC, making nearly 40 percent of its shots from beyond the arc. But the Yellow Jackets went cold against the Cardinals, making 4 of 22 on Wednesday.
The Cardinals came up with eight 3-pointers, including a few toward the end of the first half that allowed them to extend their lead to 11 points before the break.
"They played a really disciplined game, give them a lot of credit for that," Poore said. "They know where they're trying to attack and who is supposed to go where. They're deliberate in the way they play and they wait for you to make a mistake, then they'll take advantage of it. That's what hurt us tonight."
Wheeling Jesuit put six players in double figures, led by Ritz's double-double. Patrick Monseh added 16 points while Haywood Highsmith, Jarin Hilson and Dominique Tham all scored 11. Freshman Preston Boswell scored 10 for the Cardinals.
Jayson Hankins had a big game for West Virginia State, finishing with 21 points and six rebounds. Fellow freshman Ernest Jenkins added 16 points for the Yellow Jackets while Brent Bauer and Mohammed Camara chipped in 14 and 13 points, respectively.
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.