WEST LIBERTY – A pair of West Liberty’s unsung heroes played a string music lullaby for Ohio County rival Wheeling Jesuit Saturday afternoon.
Tim Hausfeld poured in 32 points off the bench and fellow sophomore Alex Falk added 29 more on 12-of-14 shooting as the unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Hilltoppers delighted the largest crowd in the history of the ASRC with a 109-94 victory against the Cardinals.
Falk came into the game averaging just 11.6 ppg. while Hausfeld was scoring at a mere 9.3 ppg. clip as part of the rotation but head coach Jim Crutchfield wasn’t the least bit surprised by their mutual offensive explosion.
“It’s not a major shock to any of us,” Crutchfield said. “Timmy shoots the ball like that in practice every day and you could see he was gaining more confidence with every game. Alex is just a master of moving without the ball and creating open looks for himself.
“Our system is designed to get the ball to the open man. The other guys did a great job of finding Timmy and Alex and they took care of the rest.”
West Liberty (20-0, 16-0) kept the standing-room-only crowd on its feet for much of the opening half, leading by as many as 23 points en route to a 61-43 halftime lead.
“In all honesty, we just had a stretch in the first half where we played really well and shot the ball really well,” Crutchfield said. “We were making just about everything we threw up while Wheeling was missing some good opportunities. I knew they’d make a run in the second half because they’re too good a team to just keep missing like that.”
The Cardinals were able to whittle away at the deficit and ultimately cut the lead to single digits, 74-66, on a post move by Obi Ukwuoma with 11:24 remaining.
That’s when the 5-7 Hausfeld came up big.
The diminutive backcourter knifed into the paint for a stop-and-pop 10-footer with just over 11 minutes remaining and followed that up with a deep 3-pointer for a 79-66 lead with 10:39 on the clock.
Hausfeld went on to score 15 of his game-high 32 points in the last 11 minutes and Wheeling Jesuit never got the lead back under double-figures the rest of the way.
“We tell Tim he’s allowed to scoot up a little closer to the line,” Crutchfield said, “but he literally has unlimited range. He makes them from 7-8 feet behind the arc all the time in practice. If he gets a clean look, that’s a good shot for him.”
Hausfeld and Falk led five double-figure scorers for the hosts. Barry Shetzer scored 15 points before fouling out down the stretch while Jordan Fortney added 14 and Corey Pelle chipped in with 11. Pelle and Shetzer also weighed in with 7 assists as the Hilltoppers shot 60 percent (40-of-67) from the floor.
Ben Siefert led Wheeling Jesuit (11-8, 8-8) with 28 points, 5 assists and 5 steals while Steve Catich and Ukwuoma scored 18 and 14 points, respectively.
The victory clinched West Liberty’s seventh consecutive 20-win season under Crutchfield. The Hilltoppers had only two 20-win seasons in the seven decades before Crutchfield’s arrival.
“We’re trying like heck to enjoy what’s going on with the program,” Crutchfield said, “but it’s a little hard to do when you’re going from one game right into another. I’m sure when the season is over, we’ll have a chance to catch our breath and look back at what we’ve done but right now there’s an awful lot of basketball left to be played.”
West Liberty hits the road Monday night with a 7:30 p.m. tipoff against Ohio Valley University in Vienna, W.Va.
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