Box Score
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The Notre Dame Falcons went toe-to-toe with the second best team in the Mountain East Conference on Saturday afternoon, and nearly pulled off another huge road upset, but fell just short in overtime to Charleston, 100-93.

Notre Dame used a sharp second half shooting performance, hitting on 62.1-percent (18) of their 29 second half shots to keep pace with the Golden Eagles who were red hot coming in.

For the Falcons (9-17, 7-13 MEC) the loss was their fifth in a row, while for Charleston (17-7, 14-6), the victory was their fourth in a row, and second straight at home.  

The two teams exchanged modest runs at the beginning of the contest, with Charleston scoring the game's first five points, before the Falcons responded by scoring the next six.

The entire first half was tightly contested, as neither side was able to take a lead any larger than six. In addition, the lead changed hands seven times in the first half, with four ties along the way.  Notre Dame went on a 10-2 run over a two-minute stretch at the 13:16-mark on Ryan Hickoff's 3-pointer.  From that point forward, the Falcons trailed just once in the opening half, before Charleston tied the game on a pair of free throws from Xavier Humphrey with 10 seconds remaining.

The second half proved to be just as exciting as the first, with both sides exchanging blows early on, and neither side able to take a significant lead.  With just over seven minutes left, the game was tied and Notre Dame caught fire, going on a 7-0 run, highlighted by 3-pointers from both Lawrence DeArmond and Tyree Gaiter to give NDC a 75-68 lead with six minutes left.

Charleston came storming back again, and tied the game at 82-82 on a 3-pointer from Aleksander Kesic with 1:20 left in the contest.  Neither team was able to score inside the final 80 seconds of regulation, forcing overtime.

Overtime belonged to the Golden Eagles.  They started the extra session on a 10-0 run to take control of the contest. During that run, which lasted three minutes, the Falcons went 0-for-3 from the floor, while UC went a perfect 3-for-3, and nailed a trio of free throw as well to pull away.

NDC used another balanced scoring attack, with five players scoring in double figures.  DeArmond led the way for the Falcons with 27 points, to go along with five assists and six rebounds. Gaiter's big weekend continued with 19 points, three assists and five steals. Geovonte Rose added 15 points, while Jarvis Huntley added 11 and Kalomo Figueroa-Jackson contributed with 10.

The Falcons are in action again on Tuesday, Feb. 25, for their final home game of the regular season, as they square off against Fairmont State at Murphy Gymnasium.  The contest is scheduled to tip at 7:30 p.m.