Men's Basketball | 11/26/2016 11:35:00 PM

Box Score WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The unbeaten and No. 1-ranked West Liberty University men's basketball team dominated the second half here Saturday night in a 76-53 victory against Le Moyne (N.Y.) in non-conference action at the ASRC.
It was a tale of two halves for Coach Jim Crutchfield's Hilltoppers (6-0) as they struggled to find the range during the first 20 minutes against the patient Dolphins (4-2), who ran the shot clock down to single digits on nearly every possession to keep the game at their pace.
West Liberty was forced to settle for a 27-27 deadlock at intermission – the lowest halftime point total for a WLU squad during Crutchfield's 13 seasons at the helm – but the veteran head coach had some words of encouragement waiting for his charges when they got to the locker room.
"I thought some of it was we needed to move a little better off the ball and be a little more aggressive going to the basket," Crutchfield said, "but some of it was just missing shots we usually make. We were playing pretty good defense so what I told the guys was, if we could hold them to 27 points in the second half, we were going to win this game."
Those words didn't fall on deaf ears as the Hilltoppers clamped down even harder on the defensive end when play resumed, holding Le Moyne to just one field goal over the first 10 minutes of the second half and giving up just 26 second-half points.
Dan Monteroso scored 7 of his game-high 25 points during the first 4 minutes to give West Liberty its first double-digit lead, 38-27, with 16:02 on the clock and the hosts kept pulling away.
Dolphin head coach Patrick Beilein – son of current Michigan head man John Beilein – called a timeout after David Dennis fed Devin Hoehn for a transition 3-pointer that pushed the margin past 20 points, 52-30, at the 11:25 mark but it was too little, too late.
After being held to just 27 points in the first half, the Hilltoppers outscored the Dolphins, 29-5, over the first 10 minutes of the second half to put the game on ice.
"We did a little better job moving and screening off the ball in the second half," Crutchfield said, "but the key was being able to put all those stops together. That's the only way you can go from a tie game to a 25-point lead in about 10 minutes.
"Also, going 5-for-8 from the 3-point line in the second half helps. We don't live and die by the 3-point shot – we never have – but it's always nice to make a few of them."
Monteroso had 7 rebounds and a pair of blocked shots to go along with his 25 points. Hoehn hit a trio of 3-pointers to finish with 11 points while Dennis had another strong game with 10 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds. Brady Arnold rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10 points off the bench while Zac Grossenbacher pulled down a season-high 14 rebounds to go along with 6 points and 3 blocked shots.
Russell Sangster and C.J. Asuncion-Byrd shared high scoring honors for the visitors with 11 points each.
"Give Le Moyne credit," Crutchfield said. "They had a great game plan and they came in here and executed it well. That's a good win for us because that's a really good team that's going to win a lot of basketball games." 
West Liberty returns to Mountain East Conference action on Wednesday when the Hilltoppers host Shepherd in a 7:30 p.m. game at the ASRC.