On Thursday night, the Shepherd Rams fell to the West Liberty Hilltoppers 98-87.
“We can’t beat ourselves, and we did that tonight,” Shepherd coach Justin Namolik said. “We were missing easy ones and going up soft.”
Namolik also praised the Hilltoppers, who sport the best record in the conference at 21-2. They are also ranked #8 in division two.
In their previous meeting on Jan. 8, Shepherd fell to West Liberty 103-82.
The Rams saw five players score double-digit points.
Sophomore guard Naim Muhammad came off the bench to score a team-high 15 points. He also added six rebounds and three assists.
Senior forward Morgan McDonald ended the game with 13 points and had a game-high eight rebounds. Freshman forward Ryan McTavish scored 13 points as well.
Freshman guard Steffen Davis scored 12 points and freshman forward AJ Carr added 10.
The Rams fell behind early and were never able to find a lead against the Hilltoppers.
“It was more of an up and down game,” Namolik said, “our energy was low to start the game, which was disappointing.”
Namolik also tried to use substitutions early in the game to try to keep fresh legs on the court, however, that was not enough.
“We tried to sub early and often, you tend to make mistakes more when you’re tired,” Namolik said
West Liberty had four players score double-digit points and was led by Segar Bonifant with 20 points.
Indiana Faithfull scored 17, Devin Hoehn had 15 and Joe Lococo added 13.
The Hilltoppers were efficient from the field, connecting on 60.3 percent of their shots. In comparison, the Rams shot 47.8 percent from the field.
West Liberty also won the turnover battle, committing 13 turnovers as opposed to Shepherd’s 20.
With the loss, Shepherd falls to 13-11 and 8-10 in conference play.
The Rams will have to wait until Saturday to play again, when they square off against Wheeling Jesuit. In their previous meeting, the Cardinals came out on top 86-82.
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