WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The first Top 10 showdown of the NCAA Division II men’s college basketball season will take place in the ASRC Thursday night when No. 6 West Liberty hosts No. 7 Findlay.
Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at what is expected to be a jam-packed ASRC.
“This is a great early-season matchup,” said Hilltopper head coach Jim Crutchfield, whose two-time defending West Virginia Conference champions will put a 49-game home winning streak and a 47-game regular-season winning streak on the line. “Findlay has been one of the top NCAA Division II programs in the nation for a very long time and we’ve had some pretty good success in recent years. I’m pretty sure both teams are looking forward to this.”
West Liberty (2-0) is coming off a weekend sweep in the Wolf’s Bus Lines Classic at Shippensburg (Pa.). The Hilltoppers – who are replacing four 1,000-point scorers from last year’s 33-1 Final Four squad – opened with a 96-92 victory against upset-minded East Stroudsburg (Pa.) on Saturday before pulling away to a 101-72 rout of host Shippensburg on Sunday.
Many of the faces have changed but the results look remarkably similar. West Liberty is averaging nearly 100 points per game, forcing almost 30 turnovers a night and has six players scoring in double figures.
Returning starter Alex Falk – who had 27 points in the East Stroudsburg win – and sophomore transfer Cedric Harris – who lit up Shippensburg for 14 points, 8 assists and 6 steals – represented the Hilltoppers on the All-Tournament Team.
“I thought we played really hard against a couple of pretty good teams,” Crutchfield said. “We didn’t shoot very well but we got after it pretty good defensively and were able to create some good looks. We’ll need to knock those down on Thursday but on the whole, I thought it was a pretty good weekend.”
Findlay has a Tuesday night tuneup against Malone (Ohio) to take care of before heading to the Northern Panhandle but the Oilers were impressive in Saturday’s 92-62 season-opening thrashing of Ohio Valley. Findlay set a school record against OVU with 63 rebounds and scored 62 of their 92 points in the paint.
That was Charlie Ernst’s head coaching debut but the former Oiler player is no stranger to the program. He spent 20 years as Ron Niekamp’s assistant at Findlay before being handed the reins when Niekamp retired in the spring and appears to have picked up right where the legendary head man left off.
“The thing that makes this game so attractive is the contrast in styles,” Crutchfield said. “We like to push the ball and use the whole court. Findlay may be a little more up-tempo under Coach Ernst than they have been in the past but they’ve always been a big, physical team that crashes the boards, plays hard-nosed man-to-man defense and executes in a structured half-court offense. That’s been a successful formula for them in the past and Coach Ernst had a lot to do with that.”
The veteran Oiler lineup is headed up by senior point guard Kyle Caiola, a first-team All-GLIAC standout, and junior guard Aaron Robinson, a second-team All-League pick. Greg Kahlig, a 6-6 sophomore forward, led four double-figure scorers with 18 points in the win against Ohio Valley.
GAME NOTES
X Findlay saw its streak of 9 consecutive NCAA Division II tournament bids end in controversial fashion last year when the Oilers were snubbed by the selection committee despite a 24-4 record and a No. 9 national ranking
X Crutchfield ranks No. 1 among all NCAA Division II coaches in winning percentage at 177-40 (.816)
X West Liberty has scored 100 or more points in 105 of Crutchfield’s 217 career games. The Hilltoppers have a 96-9 (.914) record in those games
X The Oilers will host the Hilltoppers in an early-season game next year. Findlay has won 71 consecutive home games and 105 straight regular-season contests at Croy Gymnasium
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