GAME PHOTOS

WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The No. 14-ranked West Liberty University men's basketball team launched a school-record 110 shots – and made half of them – Sunday afternoon in rolling to a 138-92 non-conference victory against Point Park (Pa.).

“Point Park scores a lot of points and they had already beaten Fairmont State and Salem this year,” Hilltopper head coach Jim Crutchfield said, “so we knew they were a dangerous team.

“We wanted to force the pace on offense and really crash the boards to keep them from grabbing the rebound and getting into their own transition. I thought we got a little soft on defense midway through the first half but we were able to fight through that and get back on track.”

The Hilltoppers (7-1) forced a race-horse pace from the start, jetting out to a double-digit lead just 2 ½ minutes after the opening tip.

Junior guard Tim Hausfeld fueled West Liberty's early surge with four 3-point rainbows – each seemingly longer than the previous bomb – as he scored 14 of his 28 points before the game was four minutes old.

“Tim was really shooting the ball well tonight,” Crutchfield said. “They opened up in a zone and Tim can be a bit of a zone-buster.”

The Pioneers (7-5) tried to run with the hosts but the Hilltoppers kept the pedal to the metal, taking their largest lead of the first half, 51-26, on a Mike Lopez 3-pointer at the 9-minute mark.

Point Park wouldn't go away quietly, however, as the Heatherington brothers – T.J. and Robbie – sparked a 28-11 Pioneer surge that cut the deficit all the way back to 62-53 with 2 minutes left in the half.

Another Hausfeld 3-pointer stopped the bleeding at the 1:57 mark and the Hilltoppers went on to score 15 of the half's final 18 points to take a 77-56 lead at intermission.

The Pioneers never threatened again as West Liberty pulled away steadily throughout the second half, leading by as many as 48 points down the stretch.

The 5-7 Hausfeld added 8 rebounds and 5 steals to his game-high 28 points while junior post Chris Morrow stuffed the stat sheet with 25 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds and 4 steals as West Liberty placed a season-high 8 players in double-figures.

Alex Falk weighed in with 13 points, Lopez finished with a dozen, C.J. Hester and Nick Brown contributed 11 each while Shawn Dyer and Mark Shadowens had 10 points. Cedric Harris just missed double-figures with 8 points but tied his own team season-high with 8 assists and grabbed 8 rebounds.

T.J. Heatherington led Point Park with 27 points while Robbie Heatherington added 22.

West Liberty is off this week as the players concentrate on first-semester exams but return to WVIAC action on Sunday with a 4 p.m. game at West Virginia Wesleyan.

GAME NOTES

X West Liberty's 110 shots broke the previous school record of 109 field goal attempts, set during a 139-70 rout of OU Eastern in Crutchfield's head coaching debut on Nov. 15, 2004 

X The Hilltoppers set the school scoring record in last year's 157-89 win against Point Park

X West Liberty also set WVIAC records for points (157), points in a half (98) and 3-point field goals (27) in that game

X The 157 points were the most scored by an NCAA Division II team since the 1990s

X Hausfeld's 8 3-point field goals fell one short of John Wolosinczuk's ASRC record of 9 3-pointers, which was set on Jan. 15, 2009 in a 121-78 rout of Bluefield State

X Sunday's game was the Hilltoppers' 109th 100-point game under Crutchfield. West Liberty improved to 100-9 (.917) in those contests