Men's Basketball | 12/2/2017 6:34:00 PM

Box Score

    WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – All-American Dan Monteroso poured in a season-high 32 points as unbeaten and No. 7-ranked West Liberty pulled away to a 103-84 victory against Notre Dame Saturday afternoon at the ASRC.
    Coach Ben Howlett's Hilltoppers (7-0, 4-0) cracked the century mark for the seventh time in as many outings this season but had to survive a second-half surge from the scrappy Falcons (3-5, 1-3), who had led No. 9 Wheeling Jesuit with less than 6 minutes to go before running out of gas in their last outing.
    "Our first six games were mostly over by halftime," Howlett said, "so we needed a game like this. Even without (injured All-Region standout Will) Vorhees, Notre Dame is still dangerous.
    "You can't help off against any of their guys because they can all shoot the three. They have size and they're very well-coached. They made a very good run at us in the second half but I'm proud of the way our guys responded. We beat a good basketball team today."
    For the first 25 minutes, Saturday's game resembled a carbon copy of West Liberty's previous six contests. The Hilltoppers broke open a relatively tight affair midway through the opening half to take a 56-40 lead into the locker room and had stretched that out to a 22-point advantage, 68-46, less than five minutes into the second half.
    The Falcons weren't going to go away quietly, however, as Levi Frankland dropped in back-to-back 3-pointers to spark a 16-0 run that pulled the visitors within range, 68-62, at the 11-minute mark.
    Another Frankland trey cut the lead to five points, 70-65, with 9:31 remaining but that's when West Liberty broke out of its shooting slump.
    James Griffin drove the lane for a layup and Monteroso picked up an assist on a drive-and-dish to Jordan Watson for a 3-pointer from the corner. Notre Dame got a free throw from Drew Scarberry but Watson flipped a nice no-look pass to Eric Meininger for a wide-open layup and followed that up with another 3-pointer for an 82-68 Hilltopper lead with 6:28 to play.
    "I think it was good for us to get pushed like that," junior Brandon Smith said. "Even though we didn't score for four or five minutes during their run, I wasn't that worried because we were still getting great looks. We just weren't knocking them down. With our shooters, I knew the percentages would work in our favor. After that cold stretch, we made four 'threes' in a row and that got us going again."
    Smith hit two of those 3-pointers himself and also handed out some clutch assists in the waning minutes to help the Hilltoppers put the game on ice.
    "This might have been the first time we've seen (one- or two-possession games) during an actual game this year but it's something we work against multiple times in practice," Howlett said. "Brandon has been in a lot of these games during his time here which is why I wanted him in there today. He knows what to do and makes good decisions with the basketball."
    In scoring his 31 points, Monteroso went 11-for-15 from the floor – including 3-of-4 from the 3-point arc – dished out 5 assists, grabbed 5 rebounds and picked up 5 steals.
    "Dan looked really smooth out there today," Howlett said. "That might be the best game he's played this season. It's not just the points with Dan. It's what he does to make everybody around him better."
    Watson added 18 points off the bench for the Black and Gold while Meininger had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Evan French added 11 points and Griffin rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10 points.
    Kyauta Taylor had 28 points and 10 rebounds to pace Notre Dame. Scarberry and Frankland finished with 17 and 15 points, respectively.
    The Hilltoppers take their unbeaten record on the road Wednesday for a 7:30 p.m. test at Shepherd.