WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The unbeaten and No. 1-ranked West Liberty University men’s basketball team clinched its second consecutive West Virginia Conference championship in convincing fashion Monday night, routing Alderson-Broaddus, 86-66, at Rex Pyles Arena.
Coach Jim Crutchfield’s Hilltoppers (23-0, 19-0) led by as many as 26 points in the first half and were never threatened in the second half en route to handing the Battlers (16-8, 11-8) their most lop-sided home loss in the past decade.
Although there are still nearly two weeks remaining in the regular season, West Liberty is unbeaten with three games remaining. All other WVIAC teams have lost at least 4 games in league play, giving the Hilltoppers one of the earliest clinches in conference history.
West Liberty, which had handed A-B its most lopsided loss of the decade earlier this season in a 105-64 first-semester romp at the ASRC, wasted little time picking up where it had left off in that November matchup.
The Battlers were able to slow the pace in the early going and were patiently clinging to a 4-3 lead as the clock ticked past the 16-minute mark.
Corey Pelle put the Hilltoppers ahead to stay with a steal and runout layup at the 15:58 mark, which opened the floodgates on a typical West Liberty surge.
When the smoke cleared a couple of minutes later, the Hilltoppers had turned four steals and a trio of 3-pointers into a 13-0 run and produced the game’s first double-digit lead, 16-4, on a Barry Shetzer 3-pointer with 13:48 still showing on the first half clock.
The Battlers traded baskets for the next few minutes but still found themselves on the short end of a 20-10 tally when the visitors applied the coup de grace.
Once more, West Liberty ‘s full-court pressing defense played a key role as the Battlers coughed up the ball on three straight possessions and the Hilltoppers turned each one into a 3-point bomb.
The ensuing 16-0 run pushed the margin out to 36-10 at 4:37 of the opening half and the Black-and-Gold was well on its way to clinching a second straight WVIAC title.
The Hilltoppers took a 42-19 lead into the locker room at halftime and led by as many as 28 points in the second half.
Jordan Fortney scored 19 of his game-high 24 points in the first half to help West Liberty off to a fast start while Pelle finished with 23 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. Alex Falk and Shetzer finished with 12 and 11 points, respectively, while Tim Hausfeld came off the bench with a career-high 6 steals.
Cory Neale paced A-B with 13 points while Roy Brown and Carl Buck added 12 and 10 in a losing cause.
The West Liberty men play their final home game of the season Thursday night against West Virginia State. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at the ASRC.
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