SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – The defense was stingy on both sides of a low scoring affair, but West Virginia Wesleyan College walked away with a 62-49 victory over Notre Dame College on Saturday afternoon.

The Falcons (5-19, 3-15 MEC) worked the ball inside early and were able to go on a 10-2 run to start the game with eight of the 10 points coming via layups. That was the plan of attack going into the game for NDC.

"Offensively we wanted to get the ball inside and we wanted to work inside out," head coach Tim Koenig said. "We didn't have to shoot it on the interior but we had to get the ball to the paint and not just play on the perimeter the whole time. When we scored, we got the ball in the painted area."

The Bobcats (6-17, 6-11 MEC) responded by going on a 10-0 run of their own, which included four points from Luke Layhew, taking a 12-10 advantage.

The contest would remain close with West Virginia Wesleyan expanding their lead to no more than seven points. Kam Cooper split a pair of free throws at the 3:16 mark to put the Bobcats up 27-20.

At halftime, WVWC led Notre Dame 31-25 after neither team scored in the final 1:52 of the first half. Senior Oliver Megins led the team in points (6) and rebounds (7) at the half. The Falcons shot 41-percent from the floor. Fred Brondsted led the Bobcats with eight points.

Just like the beginning of the first half, NDC came out shooting very well, this time from the outside. Freshman Cole Hayes and redshirt-sophomore Drew Scarberry hit back-to-back three pointers to tie the game at 31.

The Falcons grabbed a 33-31 lead as Scarberry capped the 8-0 run with a jumper with 16:49 to go in the game.

Notre Dame fell down by seven points, 40-33, but came back to tie the game at 42 with 9:20 remaining. NDC grabbed the lead twice in the ensuing back-and-forth battle, including a 46-44 advantage with just 7:40 remaining.

West Virginia Wesleyan clamped down on defense in the final six minutes of the game, causing turnovers and expanding their lead on the other end.

"It was anyone's game with about three or four minutes to go," Koenig mentioned. "They made plays and we turned it over. That's kind of how it works. Our defense did pretty well, that's probably our best defensive effort all year, other than forcing turnovers. I thought Ollie (Megins) gave us really good play off the bench. The guys up front did a really nice job on the glass. Angelo (Cugini) and Ollie rebounded the basketball. But, you can't win with 21 turnovers. You can't put it in the hole if you turn it over."

Luka Petrovic scored 12 points off of the bench, including five free throws, in the second half for WVWC. He finished with 15 points. Brondsted went 5-for-11 in the game and scored 12 points while Aaron Ariri finished with 10 points and six rebounds. West Virginia Wesleyan, who has now won five straight games, shot just 35-percent, as a team.

For NDC, Megins added eight points in the second half. He finished the game with his first career double-double, scoring 14 points and grabbing a career-high 13 rebounds. Hayes and Scarberry each scored nine points. NDC shot 42-percent from the floor and scored 24 points in the paint.

The Falcons will play Concord University in Athens, W.Va. on February 15. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.