Charleston, W.Va.- The Golden Eagles Men's Basketball team defeated #9 ranked Fairmont State on the Wednesday night MEC matchup.
 
The Basics
Location: Wehrle Innovation Center
Score: UC 87 FSU 70
Records: UC 6-1 (3-0 MEC), FSU 5-1 (2-1 MEC)

How it Happened
In an early season marquee matchup between last season's MEC regular season champions (Charleston) and MEC tournament champions (Fairmont State), UC dominated from the outset and cruised to an 87-70 victory at home. Charleston moves to 6-1 on the season and 3-0 in MEC play, leaving them as the lone undefeated team in MEC play.

For the fourth consecutive game, UC never trailed in the contest. They scored on their first possession on a Keith Williams jumper and never looked back. The strong start for the Golden Eagles got the crowd into the game early as they took a 14-4 lead just four minutes into the contest.

After back and forth play, UC would again make a push and match their largest lead of the half at 34-18 with 5:15 remaining in the opening stanza. The host would go on to lead 44-30 at halftime.

After opening the half with a three-point shot by Jeremiah Keene to push the lead to 47-30, Fairmont State would use a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 47-39 at the 16:00 mark. The visiting Falcons would continue to chip away at their deficit as they would eventually get the margin down to just four at 52-48 with 12:30 to play.

Shunta Wilson would lead the Golden Eagles from there on a 10-2 spurt to push the lead back to 62-50 with 9:01 remaining. Yet again, the Falcons tried to claw back in as they used a 12-5 run to get the game back to five at 67-62 with 5:06 to play.

At that point, UC locked things down one final time. Spearheaded by the play of Tyler Eberhart, the Golden Eagles would go on a 15-4 spurt to finalize the outcome as they eventually settled on an 87-70 victory.

UC would get the job done on both sides of the ball in a matchup of the two best rebounding and field goal percentage defense teams in the MEC. Offensively, the Golden Eagles converted 53.2% of their shots on the evening, including a blistering 13 of 22, 59.1% performance from long range. Defensively, UC held the Falcons to 45.8% shooting overall, including just 5 of 15 from three-point range. UC also controlled the backboard with a 42-29 rebounding advantage.

Individually, UC placed five players in double figures led by standout Tyler Eberhart. Eberhart turned in his best performance as a Golden Eagle as he scored 17 points on a perfect 7 of 7 shooting in 24 minutes of play. Keith Williams, who led the team in rebounding with nine, and Jeremiah Keene each added 16 points. Shunta Wilson and Isaiah Gable rounded out the double digit scorers as they contributed 11 and 10, respectively.

Up Next
Charleston, now winners of six straight, will look to make it seven in a row as they head on the road to battle Frostburg State on Saturday, December 4, 2021. Game time is set for 4:00pm.