Men's Basketball | 2/15/2014 8:03:00 PM
Box Score
FAIRMONT, W.Va. – The No. 3-ranked West Liberty University men's basketball team missed 16 of its first 19 shots in the second half here Saturday and never recovered as Fairmont State handed the Mountain East Conference champions their second loss of the season with a 93-81 upset at Joe Retton Arena.
It was a revenge win for the Falcons (16-8, 11-7), who had been held to their lowest point total in three seasons in last month's 77-60 win by the Hilltoppers (21-2, 17-2). It also kept Fairmont in contention for a first-round bye in next month's inaugural MEC Tournament.
West Liberty hit three straight 3-pointers to take a 9-2 lead in the first two minutes of play but the Hilltoppers' shooting eye departed at that juncture, never to return.
The Falcons took advantage of West Liberty's uncharacteristic offensive struggles to take the lead for good, 15-13, on a Shammgod Wells jumper at 13:48. Fairmont stretched its advantage as high as 11 points, 35-24, in the final 4 minutes of the half but a brief Hilltopper flurry trimmed the margin to 41-36 at the half.
That proved to be as close as West Liberty would come as the visitors went just 1-for-12 from the floor in the first 9 minutes of the half and the Falcons opened up a 56-42 lead on another Wells hoop as the clock ticked past the 11-minute mark.
Shawn Dyer's 3-pointer briefly stopped the bleeding for WLU but with the Hiltoppers' shooting woes continuing and Fairmont dominating the glass at both ends – the Falcons had a 47-34 rebounding edge and tallied 20 second-chance points off 14 offensive boards – West Liberty couldn't make enough stops to get back in the game.
The Hilltoppers managed to pull within 7 points, 72-65, on a Kelvin Goodwin 3-pointer with 4:30 to play but came up empty on their next three possessions as the hosts scored six unanswered points to go up 78-65 with less than three minutes to play and the Falcon student body began lining up for the post-game court rush.
Shawn Dyer had a game-high 26 points to pace West Liberty while Cedric Harris and Goodwin finished with 14 and 12 points, respectively. Keene Cockburn rounded out WLU's double-figure scorers with 11 points.
Brendan Cooper and Thomas Wimbush led the way for the hosts. Cooper, who missed last month's game with a broken hand, had 25 points and 8 rebounds while Wimbush added 24 points and 13 rebounds along with some highlight reel dunks. Stevie Browning had 14 points, Wells added 13 and Caleb Davis finished with a dozen.
The Hilltoppers will try to shake off the road loss at home on Thursday when they host West Virginia Wesleyan. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at the ASRC.
GAME NOTES
X The Hilltoppers had clinched the MEC title on Thursday with a win against Shepherd
X It was West Liberty's fifth consecutive conference championship under head coach Jim Crutchfield
X This is the first time the Hilltoppers have lost more than one league game in a season since the 2008-09 squad went 16-4 in the now-defunct West Virginia Conference
X West Liberty "dropped" to 102-5 (.953) in conference play over the past five seasons
X Saturday's upset win eased a long stretch of futility in the rivalry for Fairmont State, which had lost 22 of its last 23 meetings with the Hilltoppers
X West Liberty's Harris went over the 2,000-point mark for his career with 2,012 points
