A big second-half performance helped third-seeded Wheeling Jesuit advance to the Mountain East Conference men's tournament semifinals for the third consecutive season with a 90-63 win over No. 6 West Virginia Wesleyan on Friday at the Civic Center.
The Cardinals (23-6) will take on West Liberty at 8:15 p.m. Saturday with a chance to advance to the title game for the first time. The previous two meetings between the Hilltoppers and Cardinals this season both went to at least two overtime sessions.
After a tight first half in the quarterfinal matchup, Wheeling Jesuit was able to jump on the Bobcats (13-16) right away to put the game out of reach quickly. The Cardinals opened the second half on an 11-2 run and made 11 of their first 15 shots to help grow their lead.
"I was happy with how well we played together," Wheeling Jesuit coach Dan Sancomb said. "We were very efficient offensively moving the basketball, guys giving up good shots to get their teammates great shots. Our guys just played basketball and made good decisions."
Wesleyan was never able to make the deficit closer than 11 points the rest of the way as Wheeling Jesuit shot 62.9 percent in the second half and made nearly 60 percent of its shots for the game, making 37 field goals on 24 assists.
In the first half, Wesleyan was able to use a match-up zone it installed prior to the start of the tournament to get Wheeling Jesuit out of its comfort zone - using the switch to find some success early on.
"We tried something really new and I asked the guys to do a lot of things, and I think it worked in stretches," Bobcats coach Jack Meriwether said. "Wheeling played a heck of a game and they made some really good adjustments. We were maybe a little slow to react to some of them, but on the whole I think we needed a lot of things to go right and it just wasn't our day."
The lead changed hands six times in the first half, with both teams going back and forth until the Cardinals were able to build some momentum toward the end of the half and then use the big start to the second half to get the cushion they needed to pull away.
Haywood Highsmith (23 points) and Kyle Ritz (21) led the way for WJU. Chase Lawson made five 3-pointers to add 15 points for the Cardinals.
Wesleyan was led by Mo Berchie, who made 9 of 16 shots from the field en route to a 28-point performance. Kevin Kangni also hit double figures for the Bobcats, scoring 12 points.
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.