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Roman, Davis sting Yellowjackets with multiple three-pointer shots

By Staff | Feb 26, 2016

Skyler Roman and Steffen Davis made the second half of Shepherd’s 89-72 conference win over West Virginia State seem like a shooting clinic staged for the moderate crowd on what was billed as Alumni Night at the Butcher Center.

After the Rams had edged out to a 34-29 lead at the half, Roman had only eight points and Davis had yet to score at all.

The second half of the Mountain East game was much different for each of the long-range marksmen.

Roman would score 20 more points to finish his all-around game with 28 points, a career-high 14 rebounds and eight assists — nearly a triple-double for the 5-foot-11 guard. Davis, after missing all six of his first-half shot-attempts, matched Roman’s 20 second-half points as the Shepherd twosome took turns strafing the flagging Yellowjackets from long distance.

Ryan McTavish pitched in another 13 points in the second half as the Rams steadily moved away from the team from six hours away that brought only eight players with it. McTavish also collected seven rebounds.

Without starter A.J. Carr for the second straight game, Shepherd also had only eight players available . . . but those eight seemed to glory in accepting the responsibilities of added minutes.

Naim Muhammad scored all 15 of his points in the first half, but included enough assists in the last half to finish with seven in that category. Winston Burgess had six rebounds.

The Rams tried a larger-than-normal number of three-point shots, going 16-for-43 for the night.

In stopping the Yellowjackets for the second time, the Rams had a season-low five turnovers and took 20 more shots than the tiring visitors.

It was Shepherd’s fourth straight win and moved it into a sixth-place tie in the league with Charleston, both with 10-10 conference marks.

The Shepherd regular season closes on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Butcher Center when the Rams see Fairmont, ranked seventh nationally with a 23-3 overall record.

Roman and Davis had shared 40 second-half points. And West Virginia State’s Thin Line of Eight had fallen to the Shepherd marksmen.