CHARLESTON \u2013 The biggest Hilltopper stood tall and the smallest Hilltopper came up big once again Thursday night as unbeaten and No. 1-ranked West Liberty pulled away to an 87-77 victory against upset-minded Wheeling Jesuit in a West Virginia Conference Tournament quarterfinal.<\/p>\n
On one of the worst shooting nights of the season for the nation\u2019s highest-scoring team, senior center John Wolosinczuk muscled in a season-high 24 points and grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds while diminutive sophomore guard Tim Hausfeld went 4-for-5 from behind the 3-point arc and added 20 points to lead Coach Jim Crutchfield\u2019s West Virginia Conference champions to their 27th consecutive win.<\/p>\n
Senior guard Corey Pelle \u2013 the WVIAC Player of the Year \u2013 was virtually unstoppable down the stretch and finished with 17 points along with game-highs of 7 assists and 4 steals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m probably as relieved as I am excited,\u201d Crutchfield said after watching his Hilltoppers overcome their largest second-half deficit of the season. \u201cWe had a bad shooting night but Wheeling Jesuit had a lot to do with that. We had to show we were capable of doing other things.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of those \u201cother things\u201d Crutchfield was referring to was playing defense.<\/p>\n
As has been the case in so many West Liberty games this season, Thursday\u2019s game turned on a 12-0 Hilltopper surge during the latter stages of the second half.<\/p>\n
This wasn\u2019t the typical West Liberty blitz, however. The Hilltoppers held Wheeling Jesuit scoreless from the 9:38 mark of the second half until just 2:20 remained in the game. That span of 7-plus minutes enabled WLU to turn a 66-62 deficit into a 74-66 lead coming down the stretch.<\/p>\n
The Cardinals hit a couple of late 3-pointers to make things interesting but with the scoring ice finally broken, West Liberty poured in 13 points in the final 1:45 to put the game away.<\/p>\n
The 5-7 Hausfeld scored 14 of his 20 points in the first half to help pick up senior standouts Jordan Fortney and Barry Shetzer, the Hilltoppers\u2019 nationally-ranked 3-point shooting tandem who drew special attention from the ball-hawking Cardinal defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a credit to Wheeling to hold two great shooters like Jordan and Barry to a combined 0-for-13 on 3-point shots,\u201d Crutchfield said. \u201cThat\u2019s not going to happen very often to guys like that but it also speaks well for their teammates that they were able to find a way to get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wolosinczuk\u2019s 24 points and 14 rebounds was the fifth WVIAC Tournament double-double of the 6-7 senior standout\u2019s West Liberty career, a statistic which didn\u2019t surprise Crutchfield in the least.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what John has done for us the last three years,\u201d Crutchfield said. \u201cIn big games, he pulls big rebounds. He had 11 defensive boards tonight and I thought his defensive rebounding was a big factor in that long stretch where Wheeling didn\u2019t score in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cardinals got 19 points from Recardo Gaddy while Ben Siefert and Steve Catich added 16 and 15 points, respectively.<\/p>\n
West Liberty advances to Friday night\u2019s 8:30 p.m. semifinal against No. 5-seeded West Virginia Wesleyan, which knocked off No. 4-seeded Fairmont State, 93-76, in Thursday\u2019s last quarterfinal.<\/p>\n
The Hilltoppers swept the season series from W.Va. Wesleyan by scores of 130-103 and 122-86.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CHARLESTON \u2013 The biggest Hilltopper stood tall and the smallest Hilltopper came up big once again Thursday night as unbeaten and No. 1-ranked West Liberty pulled away to an 87-77 victory against upset-minded Wheeling Jesuit in a West Virginia Conference Tournament quarterfinal. On one of the worst shooting nights of the season for the nation\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college"],"yoast_head":"\n