WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The No. 3-ranked West Liberty University men's basketball team opened up a 21-point lead in the first half and was never threatened Saturday afternoon in rolling to a 103-64 rout of UVA-Wise at the ASRC.

Seger Bonifant poured in a game-high 31 points while Zac Grossenbacher and Zak Kirkbride each charted double-doubles as Coach Jim Crutchfield's Hilltoppers (22-2, 16-2) handed the outgunned Cavaliers (3-21, 1-17) their 11th straight loss.

"Wise may not have the best record," Crutchfield said, "but they have some guys who can play. They were down 20 in the second half at Wheeling Jesuit on Thursday and had it all the way down to a two-point game in the final two minutes so we didn't take them lightly.

"We wanted to jump on them early and then keep the pressure on so they didn't have a chance to get back on a roll. I thought the guys did a pretty good job of executing the game plan."

West Liberty scored the first six points of the game and then shifted into overdrive. 

There were still more than 6 minutes showing on the first half clock when Bonifant drained a 3-pointer from the top of the circle for a 34-13 Hilltopper lead but the issue had already been decided.

The Black and Gold settled for a 42-23 bulge at the break and spent the final 20 minutes slowly adding to the margin.

"After some of the battles we've had with Fairmont, Shepherd and Concord the past couple of weeks, it was nice to have a little bit of a breather," Crutchfield said. "Nobody played more than 28 minutes. Everybody scored. Everybody had a rebound. It was good to get everybody involved."

Bonifant hit 10-of-14 shots from the floor – including six 3-pointers – but the senior All-American had plenty of support.

Grossenbacher had another strong game with 13 points and 13 rebounds while Kirkbride came off the bench to score a season-high 14 points and grab a career-high 11 rebounds in just 17 minutes of action.

"Zak has been playing really well since we moved him into the second group," Crutchfield said. "He's always been a strong defender but he's taken his shooting and rebounding to another level. Eight of his 11 rebounds tonight were offensive rebounds. That's a pretty impressive number."

Matt Day had 25 points and 13 rebounds to pace UVA-Wise while Philip Owens added 19 points and a game-high 7 assists in a losing cause.

The Hilltoppers hit the road on Thursday for a 7:30 p.m. game at West Virginia Wesleyan.

GAME NOTES

X This was West Liberty's 200th win at the ASRC. The Hilltoppers are 200-33 (.859) at home since the arena opened during the 2000-01 season

X Bonifant moved up to No. 5 on WLU's all-time scoring charts and is just 9 points away from becoming the school's fifth 2,000-point scorer

X West Liberty has won 85 straight games when scoring 100 points or more. This was the 12th time this season the Hilltoppers have reached the century mark