WEST LIBERTY \u2013 Unbeaten and No. 1-ranked West Liberty hit the century mark for the 15th time this season Thursday night in rolling to a 100-74 victory against Bluefield State before a full house at the ASRC.<\/p>\n
Coach Jim Crutchfield\u2019s Hilltoppers (17-0, 13-0) put the game on ice early, jetting out to a 12-0 lead in the first three minutes and building a 29-6 advantage before the game was eight minutes old.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we did a good job of taking control early,\u201d Crutchfield said. \u201cThen I thought we came back out with good intensity at the start of the second half to finish the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
West Liberty had a 58-31 lead at halftime and pushed the margin to 91-49 before Crutchfield cleared his bench with 9:46 remaining.<\/p>\n
The Big Blues (2-16, 2-12) outscored the Hilltopper reserves, 25-9, down the stretch to make the final score a bit more respectable and that left a bit of a bad taste in the coach\u2019s mouth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a great opportunity for our younger guys to play some quality minutes so I was a little disappointed they didn\u2019t take advantage of it,\u201d the coach said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the one hand, you hate to see that many points taken off your lead but on the other hand, you\u2019re happy to have been up by 42 in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barry Shetzer led six double-figure scorers for West Liberty with 19 points while Alex Falk and John Wolosinczuk added 14 and 13 points, respectively. Jordan Fortney and Chris Morrow chipped in with a dozen each while Mark Shadowens rounded out the double-figure scorers with 11 points.<\/p>\n
Hickman Simmons led all scorers with 23 points for Bluefield State while Bryan Tingle added 20 in a losing cause.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key to competing in this league is giving your best effort every night,\u201d Crutchfield said. \u201cYou play so many games in a short span of time that you really have to discipline yourself to play through the physical and mental challenges. That\u2019s a lesson our older guys have learned and games like this are part of the learning process for our younger guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
West Liberty faces another quick turnaround on Saturday when Concord comes to the ASRC for a 4 p.m. tipoff.<\/p>\n
The Hilltoppers beat the Mountain Lions, 149-93, in Athens on Nov. 20 but Crutchfield expects a much tougher challenge in the rematch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been stringing some wins together and they\u2019re back over .500 now plus they\u2019ll be pretty well rested after having their game postponed tonight,\u201d Crutchfield said. \u201cWe have less than 48 hours to put tonight\u2019s game behind us and get ready to rise to the challenge again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WEST LIBERTY \u2013 Unbeaten and No. 1-ranked West Liberty hit the century mark for the 15th time this season Thursday night in rolling to a 100-74 victory against Bluefield State before a full house at the ASRC. Coach Jim Crutchfield\u2019s Hilltoppers (17-0, 13-0) put the game on ice early, jetting out to a 12-0 lead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college"],"yoast_head":"\n