Men's Basketball | 3/1/2014 10:53:00 PM
Box Score WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – Keene Cockburn set a school record with 10 blocked shots and No. 4 West Liberty maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half in a convincing 70-50 win on Senior Day before another overflow crowd at the ASRC.
Coach Jim Crutchfield's Hilltoppers (24-2, 20-2) completed another season sweep of their Ohio County rivals – West Liberty has won 12 of the last 13 meetings – while waking up some echoes for their head coach.
"We used to be known for closing games out like that," Crutchfield said. "When we're up by double-figures with 4-5 minutes left, we start looking to run some time and score with the shot clock in single digits. We haven't been as efficient with that this season as we've been in past years but I thought we handled it much better tonight."
The Hilltoppers, who clinched the Mountain East Conference title nearly three weeks ago, were in control for all but the first few minutes of Saturday's game.
West Liberty sprinted out to a 26-9 lead midway through the first half before going cold from the floor. The Cardinals (14-12, 11-11) took advantage of the Hilltoppers' shooting woes to close the gap to 38-30 at intermission.
"The problem wasn't our 3-point shooting," Crutchfield said. "I thought in the first half we missed an awful lot of good looks inside the arc. We don't usually miss a lot of those shots and it left the door open a little bit."
West Liberty closed that door pretty quickly when play resumed as Zak Kirkbride opened the second half with a 3-point bomb and followed with a pretty drive to the hoop for a 43-30 Hilltopper lead. The margin never dropped under double-figures the rest of the way as West Liberty locked down on the defensive end.
"Wheeling's a very patient team that really runs its offense well," Crutchfield said. "You really have to 'D' them up for 35 seconds to keep them from scoring and I thought our guys did a great job of that."
The Cardinals were held to 29 percent shooting (8-of-27) from the floor in the second half and didn't score a single point in the game's last 5 minutes.
Cockburn's shot-blocking prowess in the paint had quite a bit to do with that. The 6-5 senior from North Ridgeville, Ohio shattered Kevin Higgins' 20-year-old school record of 8 blocks against Shepherd on Feb. 4, 1994.
Cedric Harris had 12 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals in his final regular-season home game while C.J. Hester added 13 points and 9 rebounds to go along with Shawn Dyer's 13 points and 6 rebounds for WLU. Fritts had 12 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds to lead Wheeling Jesuit.
Harris, Cockburn and Jeff Yunetz were honored in a brief Senior Day ceremony prior to the game.
"Keene and Jeff redshirted their first year here so they've been part of 5 conference championship teams and 150-plus wins," Crutchfield said. "Stop and think about that for a minute. That's pretty special.
"Jeff could have played a lot more at a lot of other schools but he's been a great teammate and an important part of our team for the last five years. Keene has had his moments before but he's really stepped up and been a very consistent performer for us this year. Cedric, of course, has just had a tremendous impact on our team since the first day he stepped on campus. I'm really proud of all three of these guys."
The top-seeded Hilltoppers received a first-round bye in next week's MEC Tournament. They'll play in Friday's 6 p.m. quarterfinal at the Charleston Civic Center against the winner of Tuesday's first-round game between No. 8 seed West Virginia State and No. 9 seed Notre Dame (OH).
GAME NOTES
X Cockburn's 10 blocked shots ranks No. 2 nationally this season. New York Tech's Markus Moore had 11 blocks in an 85-83 overtime win against Wilmington (DE) on Nov. 30
X West Liberty's 70 points are the fewest by a Hilltopper team since a 69-66 loss to Salem International in the semifinals of the 2006 WVIAC Tournament
X The Hilltoppers, who have already clinched the MEC title and the No. 1 seed in next week's inaugural MEC Tournament, have a 105-5 record in league play over the past five seasons
X Crutchfield, who has coached more games against Wheeling Jesuit than any other opponent, improved to 23-6 all-time against WJU
X The Hilltoppers are a perfect 79-0 over the past five seasons when holding the opponent below 80 points
X West Liberty has won 92 of its last 94 games at the ASRC, dating back to the 2007-08 season
X Harris, who played his freshman season at Wheeling Jesuit, scored his 1,500th point for the Hilltoppers on Saturday and now has 2,075 points in his career
X Harris also picked up his 200th career steal at WLU, taking over fourth place on the school's career list
X With his 8 assists on Saturday, Harris needs just 9 more to become only the fourth man with 500 assists in more than 80 seasons of Hilltopper basketball
