WISE, Va. – UVa-Wise returns to Mountain East Conference play and wraps up a three-game homestand Wednesday when it takes on West Virginia Wesleyan inside the David J. Prior Convocation Center at 7:30 p.m.
 
Both the Cavaliers and the Bobcats are winless in league play heading into Wednesday night's conference matchup. West Virginia Wesleyan has suffered MEC setbacks against Fairmont State University (71-61) and Shepherd University (78-61) at home. The game will be the Bobcats' first true road game as West Virginia Wesleyan went 1-1 in a pair of neutral-site games to open up the season. The Bobcats fell to Bowie State (59-52) in their season opener in Fairmont, West Virginia, before taking down Clarion University (68-45).
 
Most recently, West Virginia State defeated Salem International 77-64 last Wednesday in Buckhannon, West Virginia.
 
Defense is the name of the game for the Bobcats with West Virginia Wesleyan holding opponents to a conference-low 63.4 points per game through five games this season. However, the Bobcats also have the worst scoring offense in the MEC averaging a mere 63.8 points per game, nearly 10 points lower than Shepherd at 73.5 points per game.
 
Senior guard Mo Berchie leads West Virginia Wesleyan with a team-best 12.4 ppg and 4.8 assists per game in head coach Gary Nottingham's third season at the helm of the program. Sophomore guard Kevin Kangni (11 ppg), sophomore forward Fred Brondsted (10.4 ppg) and freshman forward Luke Layhew (10 ppg) are also averaging double-figure scoring while Layhew leads the Bobcats in rebounding with 6.6 per game.
 
The Cavs are 0-6 against West Virginia Wesleyan since joining the MEC and dropped an 84-62 decision last December at home before taking a 79-65 loss in Buckhannon.
 
UVa-Wise is trying to rebound from a rough week after dropping a heartbreaker to West Virginia State (78-76) a week ago Monday and being routed by then 12th-ranked Lincoln Memorial University (105-62) Saturday. The Railsplitters completely outplayed the Cavs in several facets of the game this past weekend, including outrebounding UVa-Wise by a margin of 27 and outscoring the Cavs 62-22 in points in the paint. Lincoln Memorial also owned a 32-4 advantage in fast-break points and outscored UVa-Wise 53-19 off the bench. The loss was one of the worst in recent memory as the 43-point disadvantage was the largest margin of defeat for the Cavs since a 110-48 thumping at Fairmont State last season.
 
Despite averaging 81 points per game as a team, UVa-Wise must get better on the defensive end as the Cavs are giving up 92.8 points per game through the six games this season.
 
Two different UVa-Wise players are averaging near 20 points per game in redshirt sophomore forward Dimitri Sousa (São Paulo, Brazil) (20.8 ppg) and redshirt junior forward Taiwo Badmus (London, England) (19.3 ppg).
 
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