Men's Basketball | 3/11/2016 7:49:00 AM
WHEELING, W.Va. – It will be déjà vu all over again on Saturday for No. 5-ranked West Liberty and Concord when they square off in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region tournament exactly one week after their double-overtime thriller in the semifinals of the Mountain East Conference Tournament.
Tipoff is set for 2:30 p.m. at the McDonough Center on the campus of Wheeling Jesuit University.
It's a familiar scenario for head coach Jim Crutchfield and the Hilltoppers (27-3), who have advanced to the NCAA Division II "Sweet 16" in each of the past six seasons and own a sparkling 16-2 record in Atlantic Region Tournament action. "We prepare pretty much the same way every year," said Crutchfield, who owns the highest career winning percentage (327-56, .854) in NCAA history for all coaches with 10 or more years at an NCAA school. "It's a five or six day window between the conference tournament and the regional so we give our guys a little break and then start preparing for our next opponent."
It's also a familiar opponent for West Liberty, the No. 2 seed in this weekend's regional. Concord followed up its MEC semifinal upset by beating Notre Dame (Ohio) in the championship game to earn the league's automatic NCAA Tournament bid and slotted in opposite WLU as the No. 7 seed.
This will be the fourth meeting of the season between the two teams, who split home wins during the regular season.
"Obviously, they're a tough matchup for us," Crutchfield said. "We've only lost three games all season and two of them were to Concord.
"They always have three guards on the floor who are very good shooters. Reed, (Aaron) Miller and (Michael) Sanchez have all lit us up at one time or another. It's tough to focus on those guards when they spread you out and then throw the ball inside to their 6-8 guy (Terry Hopewell), who's also really good. They're a really good basketball team."
Crutchfield admitted that he and his players had a hard time putting Saturday's last-second loss behind them at first so the break came at a good time. The game prep for this weekend's rematch proved to be good therapy.
"It was a tough couple of days for me," the coach said. "You put so much of yourself into this that you just can't walk off the court, flip a switch and be good to go. Having another game to prepare for this week really helped me get past that and I think the players feel the same way.
"Another good thing about the break is that it gave us some recovery time to start healing up a little bit. Some of our guys were pretty banged up."
The most significant injury was a broken nose suffered by WLU All-American Seger Bonifant when he collided with a teammate in Saturday's MEC semifinal. Despite the injury, Bonifant refused to leave the game and actually hit the game-tying basket a few seconds before Reed's game-winner. "Nobody in that building was going to keep Seger from staying in the game," Crutchfield said. "He's one of the most competitive guys I've ever been around. He wasn't trying to show how tough he was by staying in the game. Seger just wanted to win. He'll be ready to go on Saturday."
MEN'S BASKETBALL
NCAA Division II
Atlantic Region Tournament
Saturday, March 12
Regional Quarterfinals
(at Wheeling, W.Va.)
No. 3 Fairmont State (25-4) vs. No. 6 Virginia State (23-5), Noon
No. 2 WEST LIBERTY (27-3) vs. No. 7 Concord (21-9), 2:30 p.m.
No. 1 Wheeling Jesuit (28-3) vs. No. 8 Mercyhurst (21-8), 6 p.m.
No. 4 Kutztown (21-6) vs. No. 5 West Chester (23-6), 8:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 13
Regional Semifinals
(at Wheeling, W.Va.)
WEST LIBERTY/Concord winner vs. Fairmont State/Virginia State winners, 5 p.m.
Wheeling Jesuit/Mercyhurst winner vs. Kutztown/West Chester winner, 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, March 15
Regional Championship
(at Wheeling, W.Va.)
Sunday's winners, 7 p.m.
