WHEELING, W.Va. – A commitment to defense led to production on offense for the No. 5-ranked West Liberty University men's basketball team in Saturday afternoon's 90-69 rout of Mountain East Conference rival Concord in an NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional quarterfinal at the McDonough Center.

The Black and Gold advance to Sunday's 5 p.m. regional semifinal against No. 6 seed Virginia State (24-5). The CIAA tournament champions shocked No. 3 seed – and No. 8-ranked – Fairmont State, 76-66, in Saturday's first quarterfinal.

Coach Jim Crutchfield's No. 2-seeded Hilltoppers (28-3) took command with a 13-0 blitz midway through the first half and led by as many as 31 points down the stretch in avenging an overtime loss to the Mountain Lions (22-10) in last weekend's MEC Tournament.

"I think our defensive pressure opened things up for us on offense," Crutchfield said. "Concord was really getting after us at the start and we struggled to get good looks for the first three or four minutes but we kept making them work on both ends and it paid off.

"All of a sudden David (Dennis) turns the corner and gets to the rim and then Beau (Justice) does the same thing. You don't get those shots until you get a team worn down a little bit. I thought we did a much better job of that today and it helped us open the game up late in the first half."

There were seven lead changes in the early going but a Devin Hoehn 3-pointer knotted the score at 18-18 as the clock ticked under 11 minutes and seemed to open the floodgates for the Black and Gold.

A spinning, twisting layup from Seger Bonifant put West Liberty ahead to stay, 20-18, and the Hilltoppers began stringing defensive stops together at the other end.

Dennis found Mike Lamberti for a fast-break layup, Bonifant backed up a 10-footer with a pair of free throws and Dennis capped the 13-0 run with a 360-degree spin and reverse finish at the rim for a 28-18 WLU lead with 7:26 on the clock.

The Hilltoppers stretched the margin to 51-34 at halftime and Concord never threatened again. A Zak Kirkbride 3-pointer gave the Black and Gold their first 20-point lead, 68-46, at the 12-minute mark and the Hilltoppers were on their way.

Crutchfield noted two significant differences between the stat sheet from last week's loss to Concord andSaturday's runaway victory.

"First of all, Rob Reed scored 90-some points against us in the first three games this season and we did a much better job against him today," Crutchfield said. "David (Dennis) did the bulk of that but Beau (Justice) got involved along with some of our other guys and it was a big factor.

"Also, we shot the ball pretty well. I think last week we were something like 11-of-44 from the 3-point arc and today we were 11-of-19 at halftime."

Bonifant, playing through a broken nose suffered in last week's loss to the Mountain Lions, led all scorers with 26 points. He had 20 of them in the first half before sitting out much of the second half with foul trouble. Dennis and Hoehn backed Bonifant with 16 and 15 points, respectively, while Zac Grossenbacher had a strong outing with 9 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high 5 assists.

Reed led Concord with 15 points on 5-of-14 shooting from the floor. Terry Hopewell added 12 points and a game-high 15 rebounds in a losing cause.

TOURNAMENT NOTEBOOK

X West Liberty improved to 17-2 all-time in Atlantic Regional play. The Hilltoppers have a 21-7 NCAA Tournament record

X The Black and Gold have compiled a 215-20 (.915) record over the past seven seasons with 10 of the losses coming in post-season play.

X The Hilltoppers are 144-7 over the past six years – and 23-0 this season – when holding their opponents under 90 points

X West Liberty is also 143-5 over the past six seasons – and 18-2 this year – when scoring 90 or more points