WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The No. 1-ranked West Liberty University men's basketball team celebrated Senior Day in style on Saturday with a 112-81 rout of Davis & Elkins in a mutual regular-season finale at the ASRC.

Coach Jim Crutchfield's Hilltoppers (26-1, 21-1), who locked up their third straight WVIAC championship a couple of weeks ago, showed no hangover at all from Wednesday's upset loss at Wheeling Jesuit.

“Once the ball goes up, the only thing that matters is the two teams on the floor,” Crutchfield said. “We wanted to keep our focus totally on D&E tonight and I thought our guys did that.”

The Senators (8-18, 4-18) kept things close for much of the first half before a late surge pushed West Liberty out to a 56-41 lead at intermission.

The Hilltoppers slammed the gas pedal to the floorboards in the second half, leading by as many as 36 points down the stretch before coasting into the post-season.

“Davis & Elkins definitely got our attention last week when they beat (regionally-ranked) West Virginia Wesleyan,” Crutchfield said, “but we executed our game plan pretty well. They don't go very deep on their bench so we wanted to press the tempo throughout and try to wear them down. I thought we got some terrific contributions from our bench today and that really helped break it open.”

C.J. Hester led six double-figure scorers for West Liberty with 23 points while Keene Cockburn, starting in place of the injured Chris Morrow, notched the first double-double of his career with 13 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

Shawn Dyer added 13 points off the bench while Nick Brown came off the bench with a dozen points and 6 boards. Senior Mike Lopez weighed in with 11 points and 5 assists while Cedric Harris rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10 points. Jordan Fee tied a career-high with 8 points and dished out a game-high 6 assists.

It was the final regular-season home game for Lopez and Fee, the lone seniors on the WLU roster, and Crutchfield said they made the most of it.

“I thought our two seniors stepped up,” the coach said. “Not only did they keep the offense moving with some really crisp passes, they contributed points of their own and created opportunities for other players. They've really embraced the team concept and that's what makes them so valuable.”

P.J. Turner led Davis & Elkins with 23 points while Malik Tinsley added 15 points and 8 rebounds.

With a bye through Tuesday's first round of the WVIAC Tournament, West Liberty won't play again until taking the court in Charleston for a Thursday quarterfinal against the winner of Tuesday night's game between the Nos. 8 and 9 seeds.

“We're pretty banged up right now so I'm glad we get a little break,” Crutchfield said. “It's not going to be easy coming in cold to the quarterfinals and having to play a very good team right off the bat in our first game on the Civic Center floor but I think our guys are experienced enough to handle the challenge.”

GAME NOTES

X Morrow is still hampered by injuries resulting from a flagrant personal foul in last week's win at West Virginia State. His status for the WVIAC Tournament is listed as “questionable”

X Alex Falk finished with 9 points, pushing him past the 1,100 mark for his career. Falk now ranks 35th on the Hilltoppers' career scoring list with 1,106 points

X Hester broke the school's freshman record of 234 rebounds, set by Justin Brown during the 2003 season. Hester now has 238 rebounds

X West Liberty's 43 WVIAC wins over the past two seasons are the most by any school in a two-year span

X The Hilltoppers' 26-2 regular-season record tied last year's record for regular-season victories