WEST LIBERTY, WVa \u2013 The Hilltoppers lived up to their name in the semifinal game of the NCAA D2 Men\u2019s Basketball Championship on their home court: they were on top of the hill. They stayed with their game even when it didn\u2019t seem to work and pulled out a 100\u201377 victory over the Fairmont State Falcons.<\/p>\n
West Liberty didn\u2019t start out the way that they wanted to, shooting just 2-13 from behind the arc in the first half of the game, but they just seemed to outwork Fairmont state during that stretch to stay on top. The Hilltoppers forced eight first half turnovers and they out-rebounded the Falcons 24-19, who stayed in the game with 16 free throw attempts.<\/p>\n
The Atlantic Region Player of the Year, Alex Falk, paced the Hilltoppers with 12 points while Tim Hausfeld scored 8.<\/p>\n
The Falcons\u2019 top player, Isaac Thornton, didn\u2019t score until a little over halfway through the first half, as Fairmont State was held to just 27 points in the first 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one thing our guys are good at is keeping their nose to the grind from start to finish,\u201d Coach Jim Crutchfield said of the team\u2019s slow first half start.<\/p>\n
With a second half that went mostly in the Hilltoppers favor, the atmosphere picked up tremendously inside the ARSC. Momentum swings went in each team\u2019s direction followed by hard fouls and missed fouls. West Liberty started playing their game and ran the court fast and hard. They started out the half shooting 2-3 from three point land, sparking the crowd and creating an emotional Hilltoppers team.<\/p>\n
Down the stretch, it was all West Liberty. The Hilltoppers proved to be too fast and out-muscled the Falcons in every category.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were up 10 on the boards, that means we played hard,\u201d Coach Crutchfield said.<\/p>\n
Chris Morrow came alive after being held scoreless in the first half. He finished with 17 points. Falk finished with 21 points and CJ Hester added 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy focus was not on losing my composure but sitting there with my teammates and getting ready to go back in,\u201d Morrow said of his strong second half.<\/p>\n
The Toppers held Thornton to just 11 points.<\/p>\n
Falk has had the displeasure of guarding Thornton for the past four years. \u201cI think we just played great team basketball and held him down,\u201d Falk said.<\/p>\n
West Liberty will advance to take on IUP in the Atlantic Regional Final Tuesday night at the ARSC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WEST LIBERTY, WVa \u2013 The Hilltoppers lived up to their name in the semifinal game of the NCAA D2 Men\u2019s Basketball Championship on their home court: they were on top of the hill. They stayed with their game even when it didn\u2019t seem to work and pulled out a 100\u201377 victory over the Fairmont State […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college"],"yoast_head":"\n