CHARLESTON, WV – The No. 4-ranked West Liberty University men’s basketball team earned its third straight trip to the WVIAC Tournament championship game Friday night with an 87-77 victory against West Virginia Wesleyan in a tournament semifinal at the Civic Center Coliseum.
The top-seeded Hilltoppers (28-2) will meet No. 2 seed Charleston (26-5) Saturday at 6:07 p.m. in a battle of nationally-ranked squads. The Golden Eagles, ranked No. 22 in the nation, coasted to an 89-80 win against Concord in Friday’s other semifinal.
West Liberty took a 50-42 halftime lead on a 35-foot buzzer-beater by Shawn Dyer and appeared on the verge of breaking the game wide open when a Cedric Harris steal and layup produced the largest lead of the night, 54-42, at 17:55 of the second half.
The Bobcats (21-8), who came into the game having won 13 of their last 14 games since an 89-76 loss to the Hilltoppers on Jan. 21, rode the hot shooting of Raymont McElroy back into the game.
McElroy, who had three 40-point games during the regular season, hit three consecutive 3-point bombs to spark a blurry fast 13-0 Wesleyan run.
Reggie Chambers capped the surge with a steal and runout layup for a 55-54 Bobcat lead but West Liberty didn’t even blink. Harris drained a 16-foot jumper on the ensuing possession for a 56-55 Hilltopper lead and the Black and Gold never trailed again.
A pair of clutch 3-pointers from Chris Morrow provided some breathing room down the stretch but it was junior standout Alex Falk who put the Bobcats away.
A pair of McElroy free throws had pulled Wesleyan within range, 78-72, with 3:21 remaining but with the shot clock winding down, Falk curled into the lane from the top of the key, squeezed through a gap between three Bobcat defenders and got a layup to go down as he was fouled with 2:50 on the clock.
The 3-point play pushed the lead to 81-72 and Falk harassed McElroy so intensely as the Wesleyan guard brought the ball across midcourt that McElroy never saw Tim Hausfeld darting in from the blind side until Hausfeld was heading the other way for an uncontested layup with a clean steal.
That put the margin back into double figures and the Hilltoppers had no problem closing out the game from the charity stripe.
It was a typically balanced scoring effort from West Liberty. Harris was outstanding with a team-high 20 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the floor and 4-of-4 from the foul line to go along with 6 assists and 4 steals. Falk finished with 17 points and contained McElroy down the stretch on the defensive end. Morrow and Hausfeld finished with 13 points each while Keene Cockburn added a dozen points and a game-high 8 rebounds off the bench. Dyer rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10 points.
McElroy took game scoring honors with 29 points but made just 1 of his last 8 3-point shots in the second half after hitting his first 6. Kelsey Williams added 18 points off the bench while Chambers finished with 14 points and 7 assists.
GAME NOTES
X West Liberty could virtually lock up the right to host the Atlantic Regional tournament for the third straight year with a victory against Charleston tonight
X Wesleyan entered Friday’s game ranked No. 5 in the Atlantic Region and is expected to receive an at-large bid to next week’s Atlantic Region tournament despite last night’s loss
X The Hilltoppers scored more points against the Bobcats on Friday than Wesleyan had allowed in its first two tournament games – a 66-43 first-round win against Glenville State and a 56-40 quarterfinal victory against Alderson-Broaddus
X Charleston is making its first WVIAC Tournament championship game appearance since losing back-to-back finals in 2002 and 2003
X Hilltopper fans in the Ohio Valley can watch the WLU-TV 14 production of Saturday night’s championship game live on ROOT SPORTS Pittsburgh along with Me-TV, the WTOV9 digital affiliate, and Channel 14 on Northern Panhandle and Jefferson County, Ohio Comcast cable systems
X West Liberty is trying to become only the second program to sweep the WVIAC’s regular-season and tournament titles in consecutive seasons. Joe Retton’s legendary Fairmont State squads ran off four straight “doubles” from 1973-76 and did it again in 1980 and 1981
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