Falcons Upset West Liberty!

The Notre Dame Falcons came up with the biggest win in the brief history of the basketball program as they Upset the #1 ranked Hilltoppers of West Liberty 89-87 Thursday night in West Virginia.  The win improved  NDC to 7-11 on the year and 5-7 in the Mountain East Conference. With the loss West Liberty fell to 16-1 on the year and 12-1 in the MEC.
  For the Falcons, the win was the first against a top ranked opponent in any sport.  The win snapped a four game losing skid on the road for the Falcons. West Liberty lost a home conference game for the first time since 2008.
  The Falcons only saw six players see action on Thursday night and four of them scored double figures.  Lawrence DeArmond paced NDC with 27 points to go along with 12 rebounds- Tyree Gaiter scored 23 and dished out seven assists.  Jarvis Huntley had 19- and- Kaloma Figueroa-Jackson netted 11.  NDC shot 53 percent (37-70) from the field. They were just 2-14 (14 percent) from the 3-point line.  The Falcons shot 72 percent (13-18) at the foul line.  NDC had 13 assists and 10 turnovers.
  West Liberty had five players score double figures on the night.  Cedric Harris and Devon Hoehn paced the Hilltoppers with 21 each.  Kenne Cockburn added 13- Seger Bonifant had 11- and- C.J Hester recorded a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds.
  The Hilltoppers shot 42 percent from the field (34-82) and made good on 28 percent (11-39) from the 3-point line.  They shot 62 percent (8-13) at the free throw line.  West Liberty was a +12 in the rebounding battle 50-38.  They had 16 assists and 11 turnovers.
  The first 10 minutes saw both teams shoot the ball extremely well and 10 minutes in NDC had a 27-21 lead.  That lead would grow to nine (40-31) with 5:28 to go in the half. The Hilltoppers would go on a 14-4 run and the game would be knotted at 45 with 1:30 left in the half.  The end of the half would be all Hilltopers and they would take a 10 point lead (57-47) into the locker room.
  NDC would come out and score the first four points of the second half and cut the lead to six (57-51) two minutes in.  The Falcons would battle all the way back in the next five minutes and would regain the lead (67-66) on a DeArmond basket at the 12:50 mark.  NDC would score the next five points capped by a traditional 3-point play by Huntley and would lead by six (71-65) with 12 minutes to go.  That lead would grow to eight after a Gaiter jumper.  The Falcons would never trailed the rest of the way. The Hilltoppers had the ball down two with 27 seconds left but Shawn Dyer missed a 3-pointer and a chance to tie it and send the game to OT would be off the mark.
  A big key to the win for NDC was holding a Hilltoppers team that averaged 111.3 points a game to just 87.
  NDC will be back in action Saturday when they host Concord (West Va.) at Murphy Gym Tip time is set for 4 PM.