The University of Charleston men's basketball team had early designs on an upset of No. 2 Fairmont State on Saturday.
After all, the Golden Eagles already owned a win over a ranked foe in their new home, the Wehrle Athletic Arena. UC toppled then-No. 9 Wheeling Jesuit in their new digs in January.
Charleston did its best to make those hopes reality with an early lead and a second-half surge that led to a late one-possession game. But those hopes ultimately were dashed by 11 Fairmont 3-pointers and 21 points from Matt Bingaya in the Falcons' 92-86 win.
UC's loss spoiled a 29-point Senior Night performance for guard Elliott Cole, who returned from an ankle injury, and missed a couple of minutes of Saturday's game with a tweaked ankle, to lead all scorers.
Still, UC coach Dwaine Osborne could not fault his players' effort against one of the nation's best teams.
"Especially physically, I thought our effort was really good," Osborne said. "I thought there might have been 90 seconds to two minutes of that game where we didn't play as hard as we needed to. I think, for the most part, we did well physically. There were a few mental breakdowns and maybe fatigue got us at times."
Things looked good for the Golden Eagles (14-12, 8-12 Mountain East Conference) early in the opening half. Cole was showing the form that had him No. 2 on the MEC's scoring list and UC led by as many as six with 14:36 left in the first half. But then the Falcons (25-1, 19-1) reminded Charleston why they were the nation's second-ranked team.
Fairmont's pressure defense started getting to the Golden Eagles, who had 10 turnovers by halftime. Elliott was hot, but the rest of the team couldn't match his level. And the Falcons started to heat up from beyond the arc.
FSU hit nine 3-pointers in the first half, including a red-hot 20 minutes from both D'Ondre Stockman and Vonte Montgomery. The two combined to make 6 of 7 first-half 3-pointers - 3 of 4 for Stockman and 3 of 3 for Montgomery. The Falcons took a 52-41 lead into halftime.
The Golden Eagles were able to pare that lead to single digits several times in the second half, coming the closest with Justin Coleman's 3-pointer with about 3 minutes left to cut Fairmont's lead to 83-80. Charleston could score just six points the rest of the way, while Fairmont put the game away at the free-throw line.
The 3-pointers weren't as plentiful for the Falcons in the second half, as they made just three in the final 20 minutes, but Bingaya made up for it. The former Southern Mississippi post player scored 13 of his 21 points in the second half.
"He's an equalizer," Fairmont State coach Jarrod Calhoun said of Bingaya. "I'm very biased, but I think he's not only the best in the conference, I think he's the best in the country."
Coleman added 15 points and eight rebounds for the Golden Eagles, while Jaylen Hinton scored 10. Montgomery scored 17 points for Fairmont State, with Thomas Wimbush adding 16. Now UC returns to the road with games at Concord and West Virginia State hoping to get back on track before the Mountain East Conference tournament.
"I thought it was a great environment," Osborne said of Saturday's game. "There were two really good teams that played hard, but we came up just a little short."
Contact Derek Redd at 304-348-1712 or derek.redd@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @derekredd.