WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – No. 3-ranked West Liberty scored the first nine points of the game and was never challenged Saturday night as the Black and Gold opened the season with a 114-65 rout of Mansfield (Pa.) in the second annual Charles and Lavoo Crutchfield MEC/PSAC Challenge at the ASRC.

Coach Jim Crutchfield's Hilltoppers will close out the tournament against California (Pa.) on Sunday. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.

"This was a good opening game for us," Crutchfield said. "It was great to get back out on the court in front of our fans.

"We were able to get a lot of minutes for everybody. I thought we shared the ball really well and got everyone involved. The new guys got their first taste of college basketball and held up pretty well."

After WLU's opening outburst, the Mountaineers hit back-to-back baskets in an attempt to stop the bleeding but the Hilltoppers' vaunted full-court pressure forced five straight turnovers.

Fueled by two 3-point bombs from Devin Hoehn, the lead went from 9-4 to 22-4 before Mansfield was able to hang onto the ball long enough to get off another shot and the visitors never recovered.

West Liberty opened up a 68-29 halftime lead and, despite liberal substitutions, the margin swelled as high as 50 points over the final 20 minutes.

All 11 Hilltoppers hit at least one shot from the floor with seven of them hitting double-figures.

Consensus All-American Seger Bonifant led the way, pouring in 24 points in just 25 minutes of playing time. The leading 3-point shooter in NCAA Division II history went 8-for-12 from the floor and was a sizzling 5-for-7 from behind the arc as West Liberty shot better than 50 percent from the floor (43-of-84) while draining 15-of 33 3-point shots.

Bonifant had plenty of help in WLU's balanced attack. Zac Grossenbacher had a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds while Hoehn and true freshman guard David Dennis Jr. also put 15 points on the board. Evan French added a dozen off the bench with Brady Arnold (11) and Beau Justice (10), another true freshman, rounding out the double-figure scorers.

Matt Tamanosky came off the bench to lead Mansfield with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Eric Lewis also hit double-figures with 15 points for the Mountaineers.