WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. \u2013 The unbeaten and No. 1-ranked West Liberty University men\u2019s basketball team clinched its second consecutive West Virginia Conference championship in convincing fashion Monday night, routing Alderson-Broaddus, 86-66, at Rex Pyles Arena.<\/p>\n
Coach Jim Crutchfield\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s first double-digit lead, 16-4, on a Barry Shetzer 3-pointer with 13:48 still showing on the first half clock.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Once more, West Liberty \u2018s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Cory Neale paced A-B with 13 points while Roy Brown and Carl Buck added 12 and 10 in a losing cause.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. \u2013 The unbeaten and No. 1-ranked West Liberty University men\u2019s 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\u2019s Hilltoppers (23-0, 19-0) led by as many as 26 points in the first half and were never […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college"],"yoast_head":"\n