The men’s basketball team (13-14 9-12 MEC) played its last game of the season, which means the three seniors Winston Burgess, Devin Smith and Derrick McKnight played their last game in the Butcher center, Wednesday Feb 27.
Unfortunately, Glenville State College had plans to spoil senior night as it defeated Shepherd 79-65.
Shepherd jumped off to a quick start in the game as it had a 19-7 advantage at one point. The Rams started off shooting well from the outside since the Pioneers played zone defense.
Then the Rams went cold, which allowed Glenville to have a 30-8 run to close out the first half. Shepherd’s poor shooting performance is what cost it the game, only shooting 30 percent from the field and 20 percent from three point range.
Freshman Jon Preston and Junior Thomas Lang led the Rams in scoring with 16 points and seven rebounds each. Burgess added 15 points and five rebounds. The Pioneers out rebounded the Rams 42-39.
In the last five minutes of the first half SU offensive struggles showed as they only scored three times. The score was 39-27 going into halftime, giving Glenville momentum.
In the second half the Rams played around with a comeback as they brought the game within three points. It looked as though every time Shepherd would be in position to take the lead or tie the game, Glenville would increase their lead.
Phil Bledsoe led all scorers with 21 points and 11 rebounds, on multiple occasions in the game he was the go-to guy Glenville could count on. The Pioneers shot 45 percent from the field and 41 percent from three point range.
With 2:04 remaining in the game, Shepherd trailed Glenville 71-65 and knew they were going to have to get multiple stops to win.
That wasn’t the case as the Pioneers went on a 7-0 run to close out the game, as Shepherd had a rough day on the offensive side of the ball.
The Rams will look to steal a win before they head to the MEC conference tournament when they travel to Fairmont State University Saturday, March 2, at 4 p.m.
Justin Cole is the Editor in Chief of The Picket, he can be reached at: jcole07@rams.shepherd.edu
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