After opening up their 2009 season with a 75-66 victory over Maryland Bible, the Golden Bears followed up their second game of the season against WVIAC rival, Davis and Elkins College. The last time these two teams faced off was back in 2006, when Tech was still in the WVIAC, and ended with the Golden Bears coming out on the winning end of a 73-56 decision.

But tonight’s match up that has been three years in the making didn’t begin the way the Tech faithful expected. The Golden Bears found themselves in a back and forth battle with the winner not being decided until the final minutes of the game.

Tech began the game leading, scoring the first field goal only to have the Senators take the lead 2 minutes later on an Andy Morris field goal. D&E would build their lead to as many as 5 in the first half before Tech’s Rickey Young got hot from behind the arc, connecting on 4 of 6 bombs from downtown. Young led all scorers heading into the half with 14 points and was largely to thank for Tech’s 31-27 advantage at intermission after leading by as many as 9.

At the beginning of the second half, D&E’s Manuel connected for 3 after an offensive rebound to pull the Senators within 1. Tech’s Thomsen would put in 2 free throws to extend the lead back to 3 only to have Manuel find an open Andy Morris for 3 to knot the game up at 33 a piece. The tie was the games 5th.

From there, WVU Tech seemed to take control of the game, extending their lead again to as many as 9 points with 15 minutes left in the game. A lead that Tech would maintain until right at 4 minutes left in the contest.

The Senators turned to Tim Turner who drew a Robby Marshall foul to earn three points the old fashioned way with 3:38 on the clock. Turner’s and one knotted the game at 63 each for the games 7th tie.

The Golden Bears were forced to play catch up as D&E’s Tim and Al Turner went a perfect 7 for 7 from the line in the final 1:39 to hold a pressing Tech at bay for the Golden Bears’ first loss of 2009.

The 73-67 set back drops WVU Tech to 1-1 on the young season.

Robby Marshall led the Golden Bears on the boards with 8 rebounds to accompany his 14 points and 3 assists on the evening. Rickey Young also chipped in 14 points and 2 blocks while senior Darryl Slack added 11 points and 2 steals. Point guard, Zach Thomsen shot a perfect 3 for 3 from the charity stripe, scoring 7 points in the game and dished out 4 assists in the losing effort.

WVU Tech will look to regroup tomorrow as they prepare to host OSU-Newark in the Baisi Center this Saturday at 1pm.