BUCKHANNON, W.Va. – Seger Bonifant scored his 2,000th career point and the No. 3-ranked West Liberty University men's basketball team held off a late West Virginia Wesleyan surge here Thursday night to escape the Rockefeller Center with a nail-biting 74-72 victory against the hard-luck hosts.

It was the eighth straight win for Coach Jim Crutchfield's Hilltoppers (23-2, 17-2) while the Bobcats (14-11, 9-10) suffered their third narrow home loss to a nationally-ranked team in the second semester.

The top defensive team in the Mountain East Conference, Wesleyan had dropped a 60-59 decision to No. 2 Wheeling Jesuit and fell to No. 7 Fairmont State, 82-76, in overtime. In addition, Concord had been receiving Top 25 votes earlier this month when the Mountain Lions edged the Bobcats, 65-64.

Wesleyan put its defensive prowess on full display in the first half of Thursday's game as West Liberty needed a pair of Bonifant free throws with just 5 seconds left on the clock to take a 31-30 lead into the locker room at intermission.

While it took the Hilltoppers 20 minutes to put their first 31 points on the board, it was a different story when the teams returned to the court.

The Black and Gold needed only 9 minutes to score its next 31 points and a driving layup by Bonifant opened up a 62-46 West Liberty lead with 10:55 still to play.

Brady Arnold hit a pair of free throws and followed them up with a layup off a steal by David Dennis to give the visitors their largest lead of the night, 66-49, with 7:43 remaining.

Wesleyan chipped away at the deficit but the Hilltoppers still took a 73-65 lead into the final 50 seconds only to see the Bobcats launch a final surge.

Garrett Grantham was fouled as he knocked down a 3-pointer to make it 73-68 with 43 seconds to go. Grantham missed the free throw but All-Region post Tanner McGrew tipped in the rebound for a 73-70 tally.

West Liberty ran the shot clock down into single digits but Bonifant's 15-footer refused to drop and the Bobcats had the ball with a chance to tie and 11 seconds on the clock.

Fred Brondsted launched a potential game-tying 3-pointer from the right wing but it sailed long and Dennis was fouled with 3 seconds left as he came down with the rebound.

The freshman point guard hit the back end of the 2-shot foul to seal the win. Wesleyan's Mo Berchie hit a layup at the buzzer to conclude the scoring.

Bonifant led West Liberty with 25 points and 7 rebounds while Dennis stuffed the stat sheet with 11 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals. Mike Lamberti also finished with 11 points with Grossenbacher adding 10 points to the mix.

McGrew matched Bonifant's 25 points while grabbing 15 rebounds and handing out 5 assists. Berchie had 19 points and Brondsted added 10 in a losing cause.

GAME NOTES

X Bonifant became the fifth 2,000-point scorer in WLU history, taking over fourth place all-time with 2,016 points

X The Hilltoppers are 139-7 over the past six years – and a perfect 18-0 this season – when holding their opponents under 90 points

X Jim Crutchfield has a 22-1 record against W.Va. Wesleyan since taking the reins at WLU

X Junior guard Devin Hoehn, West Liberty's second-leading scorer (16.0 ppg.), missed his third straight game after being injured in a win at Shepherd on Feb. 6