INSTITUTE, West Virginia - In the first road contest of 2024, the Salem men's basketball team headed down to the greater Charleston area to take on the Yellow Jackets of West Virginia State. Salem got some impressive individual performances, and controlled the game for a good portion of the first half. Yet, the outside shooting from West Virginia State was simply too hot to handle for the Tigers, and Salem fell by a final score of 104-87. 

In the first half, Salem showed the Yellow Jackets they were a force to be reckoned with early on by taking as much as a 6 point lead about halfway through the period. Salem got their scoring from a variety of sources as well with Khemanni Davis and Kapone Barley both hitting key buckets down the stretch. However, West Virginia State uncorked a run of their own at the end of the half to wrench control of the contest back from the Tigers. By the end of the half, the scoreboard read 43-33 favoring the Yellow Jackets in a deceptively close ball game. 

To open the second half, Salem needed to kick their offensive attack into high gear in order to get back into the game. Unfortunately, the Tigers could not keep up with West Virginia State's outside shooting. Salem made a valiant effort at the comeback, and brought it down to as close as 12. However, those efforts were not quite enough and the Yellow Jackets got the better of Salem with a final score of 104-87. 

Despite the loss, there were some bright spots for the Tigers. Khemanni Davis led Salem in scoring with a career high of 26 points. Ian Hardy added 18 points, and Kapone Barley finished with 14 points. On the boards, Ashraf Tchadouwa finished with a staggering 15 rebounds and 8 points. 

Salem will continue their road swing in the overall schedule on Wednesday, January 17th with an opponent much closer to home. The Tigers will take on the Fairmont State Falcons at 7:30 PM up in Fairmont, West Virginia.