Men's Basketball | 3/9/2014 12:52:00 AM
Box Score CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The No. 3-ranked West Liberty University men's basketball team weathered a late Fairmont State storm Saturday night to punch its ticket to Sunday's Mountain East Conference Tournament championship game with a 97-87 semifinal win against the Falcons at the Civic Center Coliseum.
Coach Jim Crutchfield's Hilltoppers (26-2) will take on No. 2 seed Charleston (20-8), which knocked off No. 3 seed Glenville State, 76-65, in Saturday night's other MEC semifinal.
West Liberty never trailed in avenging a late-season loss to Fairmont, pushing out to a double-digit lead midway through the first half and stretching the margin as high as 19 points before settling for a 50-32 halftime lead.
The Falcons made things interesting down the stretch when they heated up from behind the 3-point arc. Fairmont State hit 8-of-12 3-pointers in the final 14 minutes with Chase Morgan draining 6 of them to finish with 18 points after being shut out in the first half.
The Falcons came as close as two points, 77-75, with 6:26 remaining on Morgan's sixth 3-pointer but Kelvin Goodwin answered with a 3-pointer of his own for West Liberty, which never let Fairmont get over the hump.
"Give Fairmont credit," Crutchfield said. "They just got hot. They're a really good team to begin with and they made a lot of tough, contested shots in the second half. I thought we did a good job of maintaining our composure and scoring enough to keep them at bay."
The Falcons were still within range, 84-80, after a Thomas Wimbush free throw with 2:18 to play but Hilltopper senior Cedric Harris powered his way to the hoop for a layup and was fouled, cashing the free throw to make it 87-80 with 2:08 to go.
West Liberty forced a turnover at the other end of the court – one of 19 Fairmont turnovers – and ran the shot clock down to single digits before C.J. Hester scored for an 89-80 bulge with 1:25 on the clock. Morgan missed a hurried 3-pointer and Harris was fouled as he cleared the rebound, beginning the Hilltoppers' game-ending parade to the charity stripe.
"There's a reason West Liberty wins so many games every year," Fairmont coach Jerrod Calhoun said. "They always have 'go-to' guys they can rely on at crunch time. I saw the look in Harris's eye when they played Notre Dame yesterday. That kid's a winner and he showed it again tonight."
The Hilltopper defense played a major role in Saturday's win as the 19 turnovers led directly to 37 of West Liberty's 97 points. With WLU having only 6 turnovers all night, Crutchfield's team enjoyed a 37-2 advantage in points off turnovers.
"I thought we did handle the ball very well tonight," Crutchfield said, "and that was important because those extra possessions really helped offset the way Fairmont was shooting the ball in the second half."
Stevie Browning's 24 points led the Falcons, who got 14 points each from Wimbush and Shammgod Wells to go along with Morgan's 18 tallies.
For West Liberty, Hester hit 9-of-10 shots from the floor to lead all scorers with 25 points while Harris added 24 points and a team-high 8 rebounds. Shawn Dyer chipped in with 14 points and Devin Hoehn had 11. Senior post Keene Cockburn stuffed the stat sheet with 11 points, 6 rebounds, a team-high 6 assists and 4 blocked shots.
"Keene's a veteran guy who has really stepped up as one of most consistent players this year," Crutchfield said. "He really understands what we're doing and he's one of the best shot-blockers in the region. Keene's a big part of what we do."
Crutchfield and his Hilltoppers will be gunning for their fourth consecutive league tournament title tomorrow when they take on Charleston in the inaugural Mountain East Conference game but the veteran coach said history isn't a driving force for his squad.
"One thing this team has been really good at doing is focusing on the task at hand," Crutchfield said. "You guys can talk about winning streaks or regional tournaments or Elite Eight trips. The only thing that matters to these guys right now is playing Charleston about 16 hours from now."
GAME NOTES
X Cockburn has tied Vince Lacher's 1991 single-season record of 75 blocked shots
X This was the seventh meeting between the two schools in the past two seasons. Crutchfield improved to 23-2 against FSU during his 10 seasons with the Hilltoppers
X Saturday's win was WLU's 11th consecutive victory in conference tournament play
X This will be West Liberty's 13th league tournament championship game appearance. They have won three straight and are 7-5 overall
X Crutchfield is now 21-6 in league tournament action
X The Hilltoppers are 120-4 (.967) over the past 5 seasons when holding their opponents under 90 points
