WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The unbeaten and No. 1-ranked West Liberty University men's basketball team overcame West Virginia Wesleyan's slowdown tactics and coasted to a 67-54 win against the Bobcats in Mountain East Conference action Wednesday night at the ASRC.

The 67 points were a season-low for Coach Jim Crutchfield's Hilltoppers (14-0, 8-0), who came into the night averaging a nation's best 110 ppg., but that didn't matter to the veteran coach.

"I know we've won a lot of national scoring championships," Crutchfield said, "but I don't care how many points we score as long as we wind up with more than the other team."

West Liberty never trailed in Wednesday's game against the Bobcats (9-5, 4-4), who were coming off a heartbreaking one-point loss to No. 24-ranked Wheeling Jesuit, but the visitors from Buckhannon didn't make things easy on the Black and Gold.

The hosts jumped out to a quick 14-3 lead but Wesleyan continued to run the shot clock down into single digits on nearly every possession and pulled within a point, 14-13, as the clock ticked past the midway point of the first half.

West Liberty finally was able to get some separation at the end of the half, scoring 10 of the last 11 points to take a 34-22 lead into intermission.

The Bobcats never got closer than seven points the rest of the night but it wasn't until the final five minutes that WLU put the game on ice with an 11-2 surge that turned a 54-46 advantage into an insurmountable 65-48 lead with less than three minutes to play.

"They're an extremely well coached and very disciplined basketball team," Crutchfield said. "They're hard to get runs on because they hold the ball so well. They took 57 shots tonight and I'd guess that at least 25 of them came with less than 5 seconds on the shot clock. You just have to grind it out."

All-American Seger Bonifant struggled through an off shooting night, hitting just 1-of-5 3-point attempts, but got to the line often enough to lead all scorers with 22 points. David Dennis Jr. and Devin Hoehn added a dozen points each while Mike Lamberti provided a boost off the bench with 10 points, including a pair of clutch 3-pointers.

Junior post Zac Grossenbacher finished with 6 points but stuffed the stat sheet with 14 rebounds and 6 blocked shots to earn praise from Crutchfield.

"Zac did a really good job of controlling (Tanner) McGrew tonight," Crutchfield said. "You really have to work hard to keep him from getting the ball in scoring position and Zac gave that to us tonight.

"I think what helped us finally open things up down the stretch was the fact that we were able to get to the rim a little more in the second half. Seger, Dennis and Devin all had really good finishes for easy baskets and that really helped."

McGrew – who leads the nation in rebounding – led Wesleyan with 15 points and an ASRC visitors' arena record 20 rebounds but no other Bobcat reached double figures.

The Hilltoppers make the long trek south on Saturday for a 4 p.m. game at UVA-Wise.