Bitter Pill To Swallow. Rams Nip Falcons Late.

The Notre Dame Falcons came back from down late with 30 seconds to go on Monday afternoon and took a one point lead on Shepherd with 17 seconds to go on a Oliver Meggins 3-pointer but could not hold the lead as the Rams would win it on a Steffan Davis tip in with .4 seconds to go. The 78-77 victory improved Shepherd to 10-6 overall and moved them ahead of NDC in the conference standings at 7-3. With the loss the Falcons dropped a second straight and fell to 12-4 overall and 6-4 in the MEC.
  Five Rams scored in double figures in this one led by 19 points by Naim Muhammad- Steffan Davis added 15- AJ Carr tallied 14- Skyler Roman had 12- and- Winston Burgess netted 10 in the victory.  The Rams shot 41 percent as a team- 39 percent from the 3-point line- and shot 68 percent (17-25) at the free throw line.  The Rams had 16 assists, but amazingly only had three turnovers in the contest.
  NDC playing without Kobie Johnson (concussion) was led by Will Vorhees and Kyauta Taylor who combined for 67 of the team's 77 points.  Vorhees had another monster game with 44 points and 13 rebounds- while Taylor added 23 of his own.
  The Falcons shot 59 percent as a team- shot 32 percent (7-22) from the 3-point line- and were a solid 78 percent (14-18) at the free throw line.  The Falcons won the rebounding battle 34-28.  They had 17 assists and 14 turnovers as a team.
  The game began with the team's tied at seven in the early going. Then the Falcons went on a 15-3 run to take a 22-10 lead. Vorhees would score the first 15 Falcons points and 17 of the first 19. Drew Scarberry would bury a 3-pointer at the 11:06 mark to make it a 12 point NDC lead.  NDC would stretch the lead to 13 (26-13) at the 9:30 mark of the opening half before the Rams would battle back.  Shepherd would go on a 15-5 run to end the first half and take a one point lead (34-33) into the intermission.
  The second half would start with some back and forth action.  Vorhees hit a 3-pointer on the opening trip of the second half to give NDC the lead back, then the Rams would get a basket and we would have three ties in the next couple minutes.
 The game would be knotted at 41 before NDC would go on a 12-0 run spearheaded by eight points from Taylor.  After a layup by Taylor NDC looked to be in control with a 15 point lead (62-47) at the 11:08 mark.  The Rams would once again have a response, this time a 14-1 run capped by a Muhammad layup that cut it to two (63-61.)  NDC would not lead by more than seven the rest of the way.  The Rams would have another response that would tie up the game at 70 with 2:08 to go after a Burgess free throw.  Shepherd then looked to take control as they would score the next five before a old fashioned 3-point play by Vorhees would get NDC right back in it with 26 ticks left on the clock.  The Falcons would see Burgess give the Rams a two point lead before Meggins 3-pointer would give NDC the lead with 17 seconds to go.  Skyler Roman missed the shot that would give the Rams the lead but Davis got the rebound and made the floater with .4 seconds to go that would ultimately be the game winner.
  NDC will be back in action Thursday when they travel to Urbana. Tip time is set for 7:30 PM.
Other MEC Scores:
Fairmont State 104 Urbana 75
Wheeling Jesuit 88 Virginia Wise 81
West Liberty 125 Concord 73
West Virginia Wesleyan 78 West Virginia State 73
Glenville State 83 Charleston 77