Men's Basketball | 2/8/2014 6:54:00 PM

Box Score WISE, Va. – Cedric Harris handed out a Mountain East Conference record 16 assists and came up one rebound shy of his first career triple-double here Saturday afternoon as No. 5 West Liberty clinched yet another 20-win season with a 105-92 win at UVA-Wise.
Harris, a first-team Preseason NCAA Division II All-American, stuffed the stat sheet with 19 points, 16 assists and 9 rebounds and the Hilltoppers (20-1, 16-1) maintained a double-digit lead for most of the second half against the scrappy Cavaliers (9-12, 6-11).
It was the 10th 20-win season in as many years at the helm for 2-time Basketball Times National Coach of the Year Jim Crutchfield, whose career winning percentage (261-46, .850) leads all NCAA men's coaches, but UVA-Wise made West Liberty work for it.
The Cavaliers jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead and the Hilltoppers never led until Seger Bonifant drained a 3-pointer for a 25-24 bulge with just over 8 minutes left in the first half.
A Harris 3-pointer put the Hilltoppers ahead to stay, 31-28, at the 6:37 mark and West Liberty eased out to a 54-46 halftime lead.
The teams battled on virtually even terms in the early minutes of the second half but the Hilltoppers took control midway through the frame.
When Harris backed up another 3-point bomb with a 15-foot jumper to cap a 13-4 West Liberty run, the Hilltopper lead had swelled to 84-67 with just over 9 minutes remaining and WLU coasted the rest of the way.
Shawn Dyer led the West Liberty scoring parade with 25 points – 20 of them coming during an impressive first-half performance. Devin Hoehn and C.J. Hester added 16 and 15 points, respectively.
Deon Boyce had a monster game for the Cavaliers with 31 points and 17 rebounds. Javon Moore added 22 points in a losing cause.
The Hilltoppers, who have a 4-game lead in the MEC standings with just 5 games remaining, host second-place Shepherd (16-6, 11-5) on Thursday. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at the ASRC.
GAME NOTES
X Harris's 16 assists is the second-highest single-game total in NCAA Division II this season. Alaska-Anchorage's Brian McGill had 20 assists in a 149-70 win against Northland International on Dec. 16
X The 16 assists also rank No. 4 all-time on the West Liberty single-game charts. The school record of 19 assists was set by WLU Hall of Famer Bo McConnaughy in a 112-80 win against American International on Dec. 30, 1969
X The Hilltoppers are 43-1 in Saturday games over the past four years
X West Liberty had posted a total of just two 20-win campaigns in the 75 seasons before Crutchfield took the reins in the 2004-05 season
X The Hilltoppers had a whopping 52-11 advantage in points off the bench on Saturday
X C.J. Hester recorded his 500th career field goal during the first half
X Hester is 18-of-21 from the floor in his last two games