WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The No. 8-ranked West Liberty University men's basketball team cooled off a red-hot Charleston squad Thursday night by running away to an 89-72 victory at the ASRC.

Coach Jim Crutchfield's Hilltoppers (17-2, 11-2) never trailed in completing a season sweep of the fast-rising Golden Eagles (11-8, 8-5), who carried a 5-game winning streak into Thursday's game and hadn't lost to a team outside the national Top 10 since late November.

"There aren't too many nights in this business when a coach gets to walk off the court saying to himself, 'I think we played a pretty good game,' " Crutchfield said. "I got to do that tonight."

Senior Mike Lamberti, who recently entered the starting lineup, drained three 3-point field goals in the first 3 ½ minutes as West Liberty jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead.

Lamberti went on to score 17 of his career-high 20 points before intermission. The 6-5 wing was 5-for-6 from the floor and 4-for-5 from the 3-point arc. He drained all three of his free throw attempts and the only shot he made was a desperation 3-point attempt just ahead of the halftime buzzer which rimmed around and spun out.

"I was surprised to see them leave Mike alone at the 3-point arc," Crutchfield said. "He hasn't made a lot of threes but he's shooting 50 percent this season. Mike's playing the best basketball of his career right now and he had the confidence to take what they gave him. I hope he keeps it up."

With Lamberti filling it up from the perimeter, the Hilltoppers blistered the nets at a 60 percent (18-of-30) clip in the first half and took a 51-39 advantage into the locker room.

West Liberty maintained the double-digit lead throughout the second half, hitting the 20-point mark at 67-47 on a Zac Grossenbacher 3-pointer with just under 13 minutes remaining and reaching as high as 23 points down the stretch.

"We knew how good Charleston is because we had our hands full with them when we played them down there earlier this month (a 78-65 WLU win)," Crutchfield said. "I'll give my guys credit for working really hard in practice and preparing for this game.

"I thought our second group especially gave us some good momentum. They were really efficient running their stuff which got them some easy baskets and they really dug in at the other end to put together some stops. We played all 11 guys tonight and I think all 11 guys contributed. This was a very good team win."

Lamberti and Devin Hoehn tied for game scoring honors with 20 points each. Leading scorer Seger Bonifant added a dozen points while handing out a game-high 6 assists and David Dennis Jr. had 10 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.

Jevonte Hughes paced four double-figure scorers for UC with 20 points and 7 rebounds.

The Hilltoppers hit the road on Saturday for a 4 p.m. game at West Virginia State.