On Saturday, Feb. 28, the Shepherd University men’s basketball team dropped its final game of the regular season to the Fairmont State Fighting Falcons 64-60.
The Rams fell behind early, and trailed 38-26 at the end of the first half. Shepherd was able to trim the lead down to two points with 8:08 remaining in the second half, however, in the end, it was not enough.
Junior forward Ryan McTavish led the Rams with 14 points.
Senior guard Austin Cunnningham scored 13 points and had four assists.
Shepherd outshot the falcons, converting on 47 percent of their field goal attempts against Fairmont State, who shot 40 percent from the field.
The Falcons were able to get to the free throw line more, and that proved to be the deciding factor. Fairmont state went 19-31 from the line, while Shepherd went 7-10 from the charity stripe.
Nick Harney had a game-high 21 points and 11 rebounds, helping lead the Falcons to victory.
Fairmont State had four players reach double-digit points, as opposed to Shepherd’s two players.
With the loss, the Rams close out the regular season at 14-14 with a 9-13 record in the Mountain East Conference.
Shepherd ends the season in eighth place in the conference, and will play the ninth seed, West Virginia Wesleyan, in the first round of the conference tournament at home.
“The MEC tournament is the start of a new season and we are looking forward to the opportunity,” Shepherd coach Justin Namolik said. “We have a chance to send out our two seniors with a win at home and a chance to prove ourselves that we can put together a full 40 minutes of basketball.”