CHARLESTON, W.Va. – No. 10 West Liberty maintained a double-digit lead for most of the second half here Saturday in breezing to an 83-65 victory against Charleston before an overflow crowd at Eddie King Gym.
Coach Jim Crutchfield’s Hilltoppers (17-2, 12-2) led virtually wire-to-wire but the scrappy Golden Eagles (14-6, 9-5) took advantage of a poor shooting day by the visitors to maintain contact for most of the first half.
West Liberty – which made just 5-of-24 shots (20 percent) from behind the 3-point arc on the afternoon – settled for a 38-30 halftime lead and Charleston began chipping away at the margin when play resumed.
The Golden Eagles closed to 43-41 on an Octavius Green 3-pointer with 16:21 on the clock but the hosts were never able to get over the hump.
With C.J. Hester and Seger Bonifant turning down 3-point chances to attack the rim, the Hilltoppers slowly began to regain command.
Hester pushed the margin into double-figures, 65-53, with a conventional 3-point play at the 9:49mark.
Green drained another 3-pointer but Joe Lococo answered with a slashing drive to the hoop and Indiana Faithfull dropped in a dagger of a 3-pointer – WLU’s only bonus bomb of the second half – for a 70-56 lead with less than 8 minutes remaining.
The gap never dropped below double-figures the rest of the way.
Hester led all scorers with 21 points and tied his season-high with 14 rebounds – the 50th double-figure rebound game of his career. Bonifant added 17 points and a team-high 5 assists while Devin Hoehn added a dozen tallies. Faithfull and Zac Grossenbacher donated 9 points each.
Green topped the Golden Eagles with 19 points while Jevonte Hughes and Chris Evans added 14 and 11 points, respectively.
GAME NOTES
X Saturday’s win completed a sweep of the season series for West Liberty. WLU had muscled out an 82-70 win at the ASRC on Nov. 22
X The Hilltoppers are now 89-1 over the past six seasons when holding their opponents under 80 points
X Hester passed 2014 All-American Cedric Harris and current WLU assistant Ben Howlett to take over 12th place on the Hilltoppers’ career scoring list with 1,679 points
X West Liberty has won 15 of its last 17 games against Charleston
