ATHENS, W.Va. – The No. 2-ranked West Liberty University men's basketball team won its 17th straight game Saturday afternoon but it didn't come without a fight.

Coach Jim Crutchfield's Hilltoppers (19-1, 14-0) had to overcome a rare halftime deficit and hold off upset-minded Concord (10-8, 7-7) in the waning seconds to escape the Carter Center with a 103-98 victory.

The Mountain Lions scored the last 9 points of the first half to take a 49-48 lead into the locker room and led by as many as 7 points in the early part of the second half before West Liberty hit the comeback trail in earnest.

Stellar freshmen C.J. Hester and Shawn Dyer keyed a Hilltopper rally with a strong Hester post move giving West Liberty the lead for good at 80-79.

The Hilltoppers pushed the lead out to 93-85 with just 5 minutes remaining but Concord – which shot nearly 60 percent from the floor on the day – mounted one final surge.

Back-to-back hoops from Mike Boyd and Javaughn Manuel closed the gap to a single point, 97-96, as the clock turned under a minute but West Liberty was able to maintain its composure.

Working deep into the shot clock, Cedric Harris fired a bullet pass to Chris Morrow on the low block for a 99-96 WLU margin with 39 seconds left.

Morrow then came up big at the other end with a blocked shot that gave the ball back to West Liberty with 15 seconds left. Hester tossed in a pair of free throws after being fouled on the in-bounds play and Tim Hausfeld wrapped up the scoring with two more charity tosses following a Shrewsbury hoop with just 6 ticks remaining.

Hester followed up his career-high 31-point performance at Bluefield State on Thursday with a game-high 29 points and a career-high 14 rebounds to lead the Hilltoppers. Dyer added plenty of support with 23 points – including an 11-of-13 showing from the charity stripe – to go along with 6 rebounds and 4 assists.

Alex Falk finished with 18 points while Hausfeld checked in with 13 to round out the double-figure scorers.

Manuel set the pace for Concord with 26 points while Cory Willard finished with 20 and Romel Kemp had 17. Corey Neeley came off the bench to add 11 points.

The Mountain Lions shot 39-of-66 (59.1 percent) from the floor, hit 8-of-20 3-point attempts and were 12-of-16 from the charity stripe.

West Liberty went 36-of-72 (50 percent) from the floor, made 7-of-13 3-pointers and cashed in 24-of-30 free throws – 22-of-25 in the second half.

The Hilltoppers return home to host Shepherd on Wednesday. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at the ASRC.

GAME NOTES

X The Hilltoppers surpassed the 100-point mark for the sixth time in the last seven games and the 11th time this season

X This was only the sixth time in the last two seasons that WLU did not lead at halftime

X West Liberty extended its WVIAC-record conference winning streak to 54 games

X The Hilltoppers have made at least one 3-point field goal in 426 consecutive games, dating back to 1997

X West Liberty leads the nation in scoring at 102.4 ppg. Newberry (S.C.) is a distant second at 89.4 ppg.