WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The No. 6-ranked West Liberty University men's basketball team bounced back from the worst shooting performance of the Jim Crutchfield era with an impressive 123-94 rout of Concord Saturday afternoon at the ASRC.

The Hilltoppers (2-1, 1-0) scorched the nets at a 56 percent clip (50-of-89) and maintained a 30-point margin for much of the second half in handing the Mountain Lions (1-2, 1-1) their first West Virginia Conference loss of the season.

Saturday's performance was a welcome change from Thursday night's nightmarish 84-80 overtime loss to No. 7-ranked Findlay, a game that saw the Hilltoppers shoot just 30 percent (25-of-82) from the floor – the lowest percentage for a WLU squad in nearly 10 years.

“The best thing about this game was the way our guys bounced back from a very hard-fought, very disappointing game less than 48 hours ago,” Crutchfield said. “No one had their head down and the energy level was really good.

“Our defensive pressure in the first half was a big key for us. The guys made a lot of good decisions and we turned a lot of those turnovers into baskets.”

Concord, which was coming off an impressive double-digit win against perennial WVIAC power West Virginia State, trailed just 39-29 with 6 minutes left in the first half but that's when West Liberty shifted into overdrive.

Four consecutive steals and a Mountain Lion turnover fueled a blurry-fast 15-0 Hilltopper burst. Tim Hausfeld's 3-pointer made it 54-29 with 4:19 on the clock – less than 2 minutes after an Alex Falk jumper had started the surge.

West Liberty kept on rolling to a 65-38 halftime lead and had no trouble maintaining a comfortable margin over the final 20 minutes.

“I think we just needed some of our guys to see a few of their shots go through the basket to get a little confidence,” Crutchfield said. “We shared the ball better today and we moved the ball better. We have too many good shooters on this team not to score when we do that.”

Chris Morrow led the way with career-highs of 28 points and 13 rebounds while Falk finished with 20 points and 6 steals. Freshman C.J. Hester came off the bench to score 19 points in 18 minutes while Cedric Harris donated 17 points and a game-high 6 assists.

Hausfeld, Shawn Dyer and Nick Brown all chipped in with 10 points each and Brown posted his second career double-double with a career-high 11 rebounds.

Cory Willard hit 6 3-pointers and finished with 20 points to lead the visitors. Romel Kemo added 18 points and 7 rebounds off the bench.

“We have a lot of new faces this year but today it looked like we knew each other a little bit,” Crutchfield said. “The key for us is playing hard and playing together. When we do that, we're usually in pretty good shape.”

West Liberty hits the road on Tuesday with a 7:30 p.m. game at Alderson-Broaddus.