McDONALD, Pa. \u2013 The reloading process is well under way for West Liberty’s two-time defending West Virginia Conference men’s basketball champions.<\/p>\n
Head coach Jim Crutchfield announced Thursday that the Hilltoppers had signed 6-6 forward Mike Lamberti, a three-time all-stater from perennial Pennsylvania basketball powerhouse South Fayette High School.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re thrilled to welcome Mike to the West Liberty basketball family,\u201d said Crutchfield, who must replace four 1,000-point scorers from a West Liberty squad which spent most of the 2010-11 season ranked No. 1 in the nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis skill set is a great fit for our system. Mike is equally comfortable shooting the three or attacking the rim off the dribble and he rebounds well. He can do a lot of things on a basketball court.\u201d<\/p>\n
The leading scorer in South Fayette history, Lamberti scored more than 1,500 points and grabbed nearly 1,000 rebounds as a four-year starter for head coach Rich Bonnaure.<\/p>\n
Lamberti burst onto the scene as a South Fayette freshman when he cracked the starting lineup and wound up averaging a double-double throughout his first varsity season.<\/p>\n
He earned Class AA all-state honors as a sophomore and was a repeat all-state selection as a junior when he led South Fayette to the first Pennsylvania Class AA state championship in school history.<\/p>\n
Due to an enrollment shift, the school moved up to Class AAA status this past winter but Lamberti and his teammates nearly brought home another state championship trophy, falling in the Class AAA state semifinals to District rival Montour (Pa.).<\/p>\n
Lamberti, who averaged 17.2 points and 8.9 rebounds a game as a senior, was one of only six players to earn first-team Pennsylvania Class AAA all-state laurels. He is also the only four-time first-team All-District selection by the Washington (Pa.) Observer-Reporter.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother thing we liked about Mike was the experience factor,\u201d Crutchfield said. \u201cHe’s a four-year starter from an outstanding program that won a state championship two years ago and made it to the semifinals this year despite moving up a classification.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you combine that with all the AAU ball he played in the summer, you have a young man who has won a lot of games while competing at a pretty high level over the past few years. We’re always looking for winners at West Liberty and there’s no question Mike Lamberti is a winner. \u201d<\/p>\n
The Hilltoppers are coming off a school-record 33-1 season which saw them sweep the WVIAC regular-season and tournament titles before becoming the first conference team to win a regional championship and earn a trip to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight since 1999.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
McDONALD, Pa. \u2013 The reloading process is well under way for West Liberty’s two-time defending West Virginia Conference men’s basketball champions. Head coach Jim Crutchfield announced Thursday that the Hilltoppers had signed 6-6 forward Mike Lamberti, a three-time all-stater from perennial Pennsylvania basketball powerhouse South Fayette High School. \u201cWe’re thrilled to welcome Mike to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college"],"yoast_head":"\n