WHEELING, W.Va. – Notre Dame College and No. 16 Wheeling Jesuit University both shot the ball extremely well, including redshirt-sophomore Drew Scarberry hitting eight threes, but WJU pulled away toward the end of the game and beat the Falcons 105-86, on Wednesday night.

Wheeling Jesuit (14-2, 10-1 MEC) got back-to-back three pointers from Drake Goddard at the beginning of the game to take an early 6-3 advantage.

Trailing 9-7 with 16:48 to go in the first half, the Cardinals put together a 19-4 run to take a 26-13 lead. But NDC (4-13, 2-9 MEC) was able to get a quick burst of offense from Scarberry who went on a 9-0 run by himself, hitting a three pointer on three consecutive possessions. The Falcons trailed 26-22 at the 9:38-mark.

"We were running Drew off screens and had him setting screens," head coach Tim Koenig said. "We had both him and Ollie (Megins) setting screens and the screeners were getting open today."

The Falcons came all the way back to tie the game at 41 with 5:17 remaining in the first half and Wheeling Jesuit would not push the lead to double-digits again until the 2:03-mark.

WJU led 61-45 at halftime. Scarberry had 19 points and drilled six, three pointers in the first half. Freshman Halil Parks scored 14 points and the Falcons shot 47-percent. For the Cardinals, Preston Boswell went 4-for-4 from three point range and had 20 points.

In the second half, senior Kyauta Taylor was the one man show with his own 9-2 offensive run. Beginning at the 9:38-mark in the second half, Taylor knocked down his first of three consecutive three pointers. With 8:22 remaining in the game, the Falcons had cut the deficit to 12 points, 85-73.

NDC would get the game back to a 12 point difference a few times, but could not cut the deficit to single digits.

"Both teams shot it well," Koenig said. "We screened, we moved the ball well but turnovers really hurt us early which allowed Wheeling to get run out layups."

"I liked the way our guys competed and we saw improvement. We just have to get more stops."

Scarberry connected on eight, three point shots in the game, which is second most in program history. He also took 15 threes, ranking sixth in program history. He finished the game with 28 points, tying a season-high, and grabbed nine rebounds, a career-high. Taylor scored 22 points, 16 in the second half, and shot 8-for-15 (53-percent). The Falcons shot 48-percent from the floor and 50-percent from behind the three point line.

Wheeling Jesuit had four players who scored over 15 points. Preston Boswell went 5-for-7 from the floor and led the team with 22 points while Pat Moseh had 21 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. Haywood Highsmith added 17 points and 10 rebounds for his 14th double-double this season. As a team, the Cardinals shot 50-percent from the floor, 52-percent from three point range and had 42 points in the paint.

Koenig knew it was going to be tough for the Falcons to try to contain Highsmith, one of the top rebounders in Division II.

"He's a great player and very well could be the MEC Player of the Year," said Koenig. "We did not want to give him any layups or dunks and keep him off the offensive glass. We wanted to help early on defense and have him take contested two's."

The Falcons will take on Urbana University on January 20 in Urbana, Ohio. The game will tip-off at 4 p.m.