Men's Basketball | 12/18/2010 6:05:10 PM

BOX SCORE    GAME PHOTOS

WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – Coming off an impressive victory over another Top 10 opponent, West Virginia Wesleyan rolled into West Liberty's ASRC on Saturday afternoon looking to add the unbeaten and No. 3-ranked Hilltoppers to their upset resume.
    It didn't happen.
    West Liberty (9-0, 5-0) bolted out to a 12-2 lead less than two minutes after the opening tap and led by as many as 33 points in the second half before coasting to a 130-103 victory.
    The Bobcats (3-3, 2-2) had posted a 73-71 victory against then-No. 7 Indiana (Pa.) in their most recent outing and had some very impressive moments on Saturday but couldn't hang onto the ball long enough to make a run at their undefeated hosts.
    “Wesleyan's a very talented basketball team,” Hilltopper head coach Jim Crutchfield said. “They shot 70 percent from the 3-point line in the first half and were outrebounding us, as well, but we had forced enough turnovers to still be up by 13 points so I felt pretty good about that.”
    West Liberty stretched the 70-57 halftime lead to 97-76 on a pair of Corey Pelle free throws with 12:06 remaining before putting the game on ice with a typical WLU scoring burst.
    Tim Hausfeld capped the 18-4 spurt with a runner in the lane to give the Hilltoppers their largest lead of the day, 113-80, with 9:11 still to play and the game was over.
    Hausfeld keyed the surge by scoring 8 of his 15 points during the run. Six of Hausfeld's points came from the charity stripe after a trio of technical fouls were whistled against the frustrated Bobcats.
    “You never want to let a team as good as Wesleyan hang around,” Crutchfield said. “It's much harder coming back from a 25-point deficit than 12 or 13 points so I was glad to see that lead get up in the 20s and 30s.”
    Corey Pelle turned in another spectacular performance for the Hilltoppers. Along with a game-high 24 points, the senior guard just missed  a triple-double with 9 assists and 8 rebounds while finding time to add a game-high 6 steals.
    Jordan Fortney backed Pelle with 22 points – 21 of them coming in the first half – while Barry Shetzer posted a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Mark Shadowens added 14 points while John Wolosinczuk had a dozen markers. Chris Morrow (11) and Alex Falk (10) rounded out the double-figure scorers for the hosts.
    Wesleyan – which opened the game with five NCAA Division I transfers in the starting lineup – was paced by Dominique Ngniman, who came off the bench with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Colby Wohlleb and Reggie Chambers added 20 and 19 points, respectively, in a losing cause.
    “This was a great win for us in several ways,” Crutchfield said. “First of all, Wesleyan is going to win a lot of games in our league so that will help us in the standings with a lot of bonus points. Also, I think they're a pretty good bet to be in the regional rankings by the end of the season, which will make this result look even better for us.”
    With West Liberty not scheduled to return to action until a Jan. 5 trip to arch rival Wheeling Jesuit, the Hilltopper mentor was pleased with the exclamation point his team placed on its first semester schedule.
    “I don't think we could have played any better than we've played to this point,” Crutchfield said. “The key for us will be continuing to improve as the season goes on because the teams we play will be getting better but right now I know we'll be undefeated for at least the next couple of weeks so it's going to be a very merry Christmas.”