Friday's Mountain East Conference men's basketball tournament quarterfinal game between No. 4 seed Shepherd and No. 5 seed Notre Dame College pitted two of the conference's best big men - the Rams' A.J. Carr and the Falcons' Will Vorhees - against each other.
The battle did not disappoint, but in the end it was Carr and the Rams coming out on top as Shepherd beat Notre Dame 71-68.
"I feel like I've had that battle since my freshman year playing [against Vorhees]," Carr said. "He's a great player and he takes big steps every year. As far as this summer, when I was in the weight room a lot, I used the mindset of how Vorhees kind of pushes you around. I used that and it kind of lit that fire."
Carr, a junior, finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds, but perhaps his most important contributions in both categories came in the game's final minute.
Trailing 68-66, Carr buried a 3-pointer with 32 seconds remaining to put the Rams in the lead for good. He had the room, his release was good and the rotation appeared to have the ball on path for the bottom of the basket, but still Carr was not positive it was going in until it went through the hoop.
"Did I know it was going in? No," Carr said with a smile after the game. "I sure was hoping. I'm glad it did."
Vorhees had a chance to tie the game or give the Falcons the lead from the foul line with 11 seconds to play, but two uncharacteristic misses followed by a Carr rebound allowed Shepherd's Steffen Davis an opportunity to ice the game on the foul line.
"The basketball gods were with us right there," Carr said.
Davis sank both shots for two of his team-high 23 points to send the Rams on to Saturday's semifinal round.
"We haven't advanced to the semifinals of a conference tournament since 1997," Shepherd coach Justin Namolik said. "For us at Shepherd basketball, this is a step in overcoming that obstacle and fighting."
Notre Dame outscored Shepherd 38-18 in the paint, outrebounded the Rams by 11 and shot a higher percentage (45.8 percent compared to Shepherd's 34.9 output) but still could not find a way past the Rams. Turnovers (the Falcons had 11 compared to just two for Shepherd) and foul shooting (NDC went 6 of 20 at the line) were factors Notre Dame coach Tim Koenig pointed to in the loss.
"They made a couple of plays down the stretch, we didn't," he said. "They got a couple of loose balls down the stretch, we didn't."
Vorhees, a junior and a big part of NDC's run to the 2016 MEC championship game, finished with a game-high 27 points to go with 11 rebounds.
"Will's our leader," Koenig said. "He's our guy and we go to Will all the time. I won't change anything. Offense, defense, off the court. He's our leader. When the game's on the line, he's going to work harder."
Shepherd next faces top-seeded Fairmont State in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Saturday. The Rams lost both regular-season games against the Falcons, each game by five points.
Contact Tom Bragg at 304-348-4871 or tom.bragg@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomBraggSports.