CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Liberty University men’s basketball team begins its quest to add a West Virginia Conference Tournament title to its WVIAC regular-season championship tonight.
Coach Jim Crutchfield’s top-seeded Hilltoppers (25-1) ride a 20-game winning streak –longest in the nation – into a 6:30 p.m. WVIAC Tournament quarterfinal against No. 8-seed Seton Hill (14-14) at the Charleston Civic Center Coliseum.
West Liberty, ranked No. 1 in the Atlantic Region and No. 10 in the NCAA Division II national coaches’ poll, already owns a pair of victories against the Griffins this season.
The Hilltoppers handed Seton Hill a 98-86 setback on Jan. 21 at the ASRC and followed that up with a 118-86 thrashing in Greensburg, Pa. on Feb. 15.
Don’t expect West Liberty to take SHU lightly, however, as the Griffins have been playing their best basketball of the season over the past couple of weeks.
They enter tonight’s game having won four of their last five outings – including an impressive 72-66 upset of regionally-ranked Fairmont State on the Falcons’ home boards in a mutual regular-season finale.
Seton Hill carried the momentum from that victory into a dominating 91-74 blowout of Davis & Elkins in Monday’s first-round game.
Coach Tony Morocco used only seven players against D&E but all seven scored in double-figures, paced by 22 points from standout sophomore guard Chris Giles and double-doubles from 6-9 senior center Cody Boone (14 points, 14 rebounds) and 6-2 senior guard Emmanuel Jackson (10 points, 12 rebounds).
Giles, a second-team All-WVIAC honoree, appears to have made a complete recovery from a nagging ankle injury that has plagued him over the past month. The electrifying backcourter has posted four consecutive 20-point games and hit 23-of-24 free throws over that span.
The first-round bye probably came at an opportune time for a West Liberty team that closed out the regular-season with 8 games in 17 days.
Despite the grind, the Hilltoppers still lead the nation in scoring (104.0 ppg.) and five other statistical categories with six players averaging in double-figures.
Junior Corey Pelle (17.5 ppg.) and senior Mike Mathey (15.9 ppg.) – a pair of first-team All-WVIAC guards – lead the scoring parade for West Liberty. Junior Barry Shetzer – who lit Seton Hill up for a career-high 40 points in the Feb. 15 game – averages 14.3 ppg. with fellow junior Jordan Fortney scoring at a 13.4 ppg. clip.
Junior John Wolocinzuk averaged 13.1 ppg. and is coming off a career-high 16-rebound performance in Saturday’s regular-season finale against Wheeling Jesuit while senior Scott Mirich (11.9 ppg.) has been averaging 20.3 points and nearly 6 rebounds a game in his last four games. Mirich scored a career-high 27 points at Wheeling Jesuit.
West Liberty holds a 5-1 lead in the brief series against the Griffins and has won five consecutive WVIAC quarterfinal contests under Crutchfield.
The winner of tonight’s West Liberty-Seton Hill game advances to Friday’s 8:30 p.m. semifinal against the survivor of tonight’s late game between No. 4 seed Fairmont State (22-6) and No. 5 seed Charleston (18-10).
