The West Virginia State men's basketball team dropped its fifth game in a row on Thursday, falling 84-78 to Glenville State at the Walker Convocation Center.
The loss dropped the Yellow Jackets (6-17 overall) to 3-14 in Mountain East Conference play with five games left in the regular season as they look to rally out of the bottom of the conference standings for a spot in the conference tournament.
"It's rough right now. We've been through a lot and are having trouble getting into a rhythm," West Virginia State coach Bryan Poore said. "At the same time, this stuff we're going through is giving players some opportunities and we need people to step up and take advantage of it, and we just aren't right now.
"We've just got to bounce back and play a lot better."
Glenville State (9-12, 6-11) used a balanced attack that saw four players reach double figures in scoring against a West Virginia State team that was short-handed without three of its starters. Guard Brent Bauer and forwards Jayson Hankins and Cody Morris were all sidelined with injuries.
"We definitely missed those guys because they're a big part of what we're doing," Poore said. "It makes it difficult, but injuries happen and we've got to step up and make up for it. We just haven't made that happen."
WVSU struggled to find an answer to slow down the Pioneers offensively. Glenville State shot 56.9 percent from the field and got plenty of points in the paint and in transition by taking the Yellow Jackets off the dribble and finding its way near the rim for easier baskets.
It marked the fifth game in a row and 11th in the last 12 that West Virginia State allowed its opponent to shoot at least 45 percent. The Yellow Jackets are 0-11 during that stretch when that happens.
"We struggled to get critical stops when we needed one," Poore said. "They drove us really well, they beat us off the dribble. We've had problems with that for a while and it's tougher when some of your best on-ball defenders aren't out there."
The Yellow Jackets were able to stay in the game and fight back quickly when it looked like the Pioneers were going to start to extend the advantage by hitting a handful of big shots from beyond the arc.
Led by six 3-pointers from Ernest Jenkins, West Virginia State hit 14 shots from beyond the arc. Tyrie Elliott and Sable Cooper joined Jenkins as the WVSU players to make at least three 3-pointers in the game. But the Yellow Jackets struggled to make their shots from the foul line, shooting just 53.3 percent and missing seven of their 15 attempts.
"We decided to try to go small with them and I thought we shot the ball pretty well for the most part," Poore said. "The free-throw line hurts when you look and see that you missed seven and lost by six. When you do that and you get outrebounded 40-29, you're probably going to come up on the short end."
Terry Davis Jr. came off the bench to lead Glenville State with 23 points while Jalon Plummer joined him with 21. Brett Morris finished with a double-double, scoring 14 points and grabbing 13 rebounds, while freshman point guard Darhius Nunn scored 16 points and handed out eight assists.
Jenkins led all scorers with 26 points and extended his streak to 20 consecutive games with at least 10 points. Terrance Jenkins had a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds while Cooper finished with 13 points.
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.