Men's Basketball: IU East 88, WVU Tech 84

BECKLEY, W.V. – Tobey Billups scored a career-high 24 points and Jeremiah Landers added 19 as the IU East men’s basketball team snapped a 5-game losing streak as they defeated WVU Tech 88-84 Saturday.

The Red Wolves end their season with a 12-16 record and 4-12 mark in RSC play. IU East shot 43 percent from the floor and went 23-of-26 from the charity stripe.

Billups started the scoring for the Red Wolves. He made back-to-back 3-pointers in the first minute of the game for a 6-0 lead. He later made a jump shot to score the team’s first eight points.

The Golden Bears would later gain their first lead of the contest at 9-8 and wouldn’t let it go the rest of the half. They led by as much as 17 points in the first. Billups added two free throws with three seconds left to cut the deficit to 51-37 heading into the halftime break.

With 10:52 remaining in the game, Kyle Tolbert’s layup tied the game at 59-59 as the Red Wolves went on a 22-8 run.

In the next minute, the Golden Bears went on an 8-0 run themselves that caused head coach Mark Hester to call a timeout with 9:25 remaining. IUE kept chipping away at their deficit though and later tied the game again, this time thanks to a Jameer Ajibade 3-pointer with 4:20 to go.

Ashton Johnson’s 3-pointer with 2:06 left gave the Red Wolves their first lead since the first half at 83-80. IU East would not trail the rest of the way.