Mountain State Times

D&E's Historic Season Comes to an End at MEC Tournament

The Davis & Elkins men's basketball team's historic season came to and end Saturday night in the Mountain East Tournament semifinals at the hands of Fairmont State University, 76-65.

In a tightly-contest match throughout that saw Fairmont State pull away late. Neither team shot particularly well from the field and both teams defended the ball well in a physical contest. D&E held the Nation's third-best scoring offense 18 points below their season average.

The Senators were solid from the free throw line. Having struggled a game prior, shooting 67.9%, D&E made 15 of 17 attempts against Fairmont State.

"It was a little ugly, a little gritty at times," said D&E head coach Daniel Mondragon. "It was a great game, very competitive, very physical."

The Senators were able to defend the perimeter well, limiting the Falcons to just 5 of 26 in three-point attempts. "That was part of the game plan, to limit the threes," shared Mondragon. "They have three of the best three-point shooters in the league from a volume and percentage standpoint."

The two teams battled back-and-forth in the first half with a total of seven lead changes. The Falcons' George Mangas scored a layup at the end of the period to put Fairmont State up 4, 33-29 heading to the locker room.

In the second half, D&E kept it close early on and closed the gap with 13:13 on the clock on a Vadim Clanet layup to tie the game at 42 apiece.

The Falcons then went on a 9-0 run to go up 51-42 with 10:32 to play. D&E chipped away to attempt to close the gap and got to within 4 at 7:06 remaining, but that was as close as the Senators would find themselves from that point and were forced to foul late.

All-MEC First-Teamer, Sam Rolle IV led D&E in scoring with 18 points on 7 of 15 from the field, dished out a game-high 4 assists, and was a perfect 4 of 4 from the free throw line.

Clanet scored 17 points, including 4 three-pointers. He also pulled down 9 rebounds.

Honorable Mention All-MEC forward, Breland Walton scored 8 points and battled in the paint for a game-high 12 rebounds.

Evan Busby scored 6 points for the Senators and had a pair of rebounds.

Claren Pierre, Jordan Alexander, and DJ Henderson each scored 4 points. Pierre added 8 rebounds. Alexander had a pair of rebounds, 2 assists. Henderson had 3 rebounds and 2 blocks.

Ashton Lovette and Charleston Ponds each scored 2 points in the game.

The historic season came to an end following a five-game winning streak and a stretch that saw the Senators win nine of their previous ten games. The significance of this and the momentum it created was not lost on D&E's star player, Rolle.

"Coach talked about in the locker room when we were 13 and 12 that we had one game to make history and we made that history," said Rolle. "And that was a lift of our backs that gave us a boost of confidence. We came into the tournament feeling great. We won out and went into the Charleston game feeling great."

D&E finished its season 19-11 overall and 12-10 in the MEC. 

Original source can be found here