Men's Basketball | 11/14/2017 9:55:00 PM

Box Score

    ELKINS, W.Va. – The unbeaten and No. 17-ranked West Liberty University men's basketball team passed its first road test of the young season here Tuesday night with a 123-90 thumping of Davis & Elkins at the McDonnell Center.
    Coach Ben Howlett's Hilltoppers (3-0) never trailed but the debuting Senators were able to keep things close for a while.
    A Tyler Twyman jumper pulled D&E even, 22-22, at the 12-minute mark of the opening half but WLU's Dalton Bolon drained back-to-back 3-pointers and the Black and Gold's relentless pressure began to create some separation.
    West Liberty forced 22 turnovers in the first half alone with many of those miscues leading directly to points on the Hilltoppers' side of the scoreboard. West Liberty had a 28-7 edge in points off turnovers at the half.
    Dan Monteroso capped a late surge that gave the visitors their largest lead of the half, 62-43, with 4 seconds showing on the clock.
    Twyman drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer to trim the halftime deficit to 62-46 but the lead never dropped below double-digits again and West Liberty steadily pulled away, leading by as many as 36 points down the stretch.
    Bolon went 7-of-11 from behind the 3-point arc and led all scorers with 26 points. Eric Meininger added 20 tallies while Jordan Watson came off the bench to score 17 points and hand out a team-high 5 assists. Monteroso chipped in with 14 points, a team-high 5 rebounds and 4 assists with James Griffin's 14 points rounding out WLU's double-figure scorers.
    Jordan McElveen had 16 points to lead four double-figure scorers for the Senators. Rickenjee Bellevue had 11 points and 10 rebounds in the first half but left the game with an injury early in the second half and did not return.
    The Hilltoppers hit the road again on Saturday for their Mountain East Conference opener, a 4 p.m. test at Glenville State.