WHEELING, W.Va. – Jason Jolly scored 19 points and Vonte Montgomery added 17 to lead Fairmont State (22-7) to an 81-54 win over Shepherd University (14-16) in quarterfinal action of the MEC Men's Basketball Tournament at WesBanco Arena on Friday afternoon.

Senior guard Derek McKnight (Teaneck, N.J./Gaston (N.C.) Day School/Louisburg CC) led the Rams with 14 points. Junior guard Thomas Lang (New Market, Md./Linganore) added 11 points, while senior guard Devin Smith Baltimore, Md./Randallstown/Richard Bland CC) tossed in 10 points and had a team-high three assists.

Sophomore guard Jarrell Jones (Martinsburg, W.Va./Martinsburg/Alderson Broaddus) added six points and tied freshman forward Emmanuel Aghayere (Reston, Va./South Lakes) with a team-high six boards.

Andrew Emrick scored 15 points for the Fighting Falcons. Cole VonHandorf tossed in 12, while Kenzie Melko had 11.

Fairmont State had a 34-28 lead at halftime.

The Falcons opened the second half on an 18-4 run to forge a 20-point lead and take control of the game.

Shepherd connected on 32.3 percent (21-65) from the floor with a 28.6 percent (8-28) performance from beyond the arc for the game. The Rams hit on 57.1 percent (4-7) of their free throws.

Fairmont State shot 50.8 percent (31-61) from the floor with a 19 percent effort (4-21) from three-point range. The Fighting Falcons shot 83.3 percent (15-18) from the charity stripe.

Fairmont State had a 47-30 edge on the boards. The Rams forced seven turnovers and committed nine.

The Falcons advance to Saturday's semifinal round to face Notre Dame.

Notes: Winston Burgess finished his career with 1,114 points to rank 31st on Shepherd all-time scoring list … his 666 rebounds place him 12th on the SU all-time list … Lang set a new Shepherd single season three-point mark with 105 … Lang's .919 (91-99) free throw percentage this season broke the single-season mark of .913 (95-104) set by Brantley Osborne in 2013-14.