The Mountain East Conference-leading defense was on display for the University of Charleston men's basketball team Monday night. The renewed offense the Golden Eagles found in December? That stayed on holiday.
A UC cold snap near the end of the second half allowed Wheeling Jesuit to pull away and erase the Golden Eagles' four-game winning streak. The Cardinals, behind 19 points from Haywood Highsmith, beat Charleston 71-62 at the Civic Center.
A late 10-2 run gave Jesuit (11-1, 4-1 MEC) enough of a cushion to stay ahead. Charleston (6-5, 3-2 MEC), which averaged 87.8 points during its four-game winning streak, committed 16 turnovers and shot 41 percent (25 for 61) from the floor.
UC will want to try reclaiming that firepower, considering No. 1 West Liberty - which blitzed West Virginia State, 127-88, on Monday and averages a Division II-leading 111.5 points per game - comes to the Civic Center on Wednesday.
"I thought we had two spurts where we were really bad," UC coach Dwaine Osborne said. "One was the start of the second half and late in the game. Outside of those two spurts, I thought that we played as well, or better, than they did at times."
That first spurt was a 10-1 Jesuit run to start the second half. In that 2 minute, 53 second span, Charleston missed three shots from the floor and committed three turnovers. The 10-2 run that sealed the game started with 9:35 left on the clock. Cameron Dozier had just hit a 3-pointer that tied the game at 51 and erased Jesuit's five-point lead.
But the Golden Eagles missed 10 of 11 shots after that, which gave the Cardinals the opening they needed.
"I didn't think we protected the paint the way we were supposed to," UC senior forward Aleksander Kesic said. "We started off slow in the second half. I think we relaxed and that spurt made a difference.
"We obviously had a bad shooting night, but we took a lot of 3s," he added. "We should have attacked the basket more. But that happens and we just have to get ready for Wednesday."
Monday night's game began as a defensive struggle, as neither team broke the 30-point barrier by halftime. The Golden Eagles took an early 10-5 lead on the strength of a trio of Coleman layups. Charleston's luck farther away from the hoop wasn't as good. UC made just 1 of 11 from 3-point range in the first half.
That, and the Cardinals' improved shooting, allowed Jesuit to pull ahead. After starting the game 2 for 8 from the floor, WJU went 50 percent (9 for 18) the rest of the way. Jesuit led 24-20 after Haywood Highsmith's layup with 3:26 to go in the half and was able to hold off Charleston until the halftime buzzer, taking a 29-28 lead into the locker room.
"I think our defense was really good tonight," WJU coach Danny Sancomb said. "I think we forced them to take some tough shots. They're a very good rebounding team and we're a very good rebounding team and we were able to get some baskets in transition.
"And we executed," he continued. "We moved the ball better in the second half than we did in the first half. We knew it was going to be a struggle to score."
The 71 points Jesuit scored Monday were more than 14 below their 85.5-point average they entered with. But the Cardinals shot 48.2 percent from the floor (27 for 56) for the game and made 16 of 30 (53.3 percent) in the second half.
Within UC's 41-percent shooting, the Golden Eagles made just 6 of 23 3-pointers (26.1 percent). Charleston entered the game averaging 19.8 3-point attempts per game.
Dozier led Charleston with 13 points, while Coleman added 12 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Jevonte Hughes added 11 points for UC. Highsmith pulled down 10 rebounds and Eric Siefert scored 14 points for Wheeling Jesuit on 6-of-8 shooting, including 2 of 3 from 3-point range.
In the women's game, UC upset Wheeling Jesuit, 68-58, behind Chyress Lockhart's game-high 29 points. The Golden Eagles (4-7, 2-3 MEC) and Cardinals (8-2, 4-1 MEC) were tied, 44-44, with 8 minutes left, yet when Marissa Koob broke that tie with a 3-pointer with 7:13 left, UC never trailed again. Jesuit cut the lead to 53-51 on a Taylor Lubinsky 3-pointer, but Mya Walker responded with a pair of 3s to extend Charleston's lead to 59-51 with 2:41 left.
Charleston hit nine 3-pointers against Jesuit, which managed to make just one the entire game. Walker finished the game with 14 points, while Lydia Hyburg led Jesuit with 15 points.