Men's Basketball | 12/9/2017 10:18:00 PM

Box Score

    WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – All-American Dan Monteroso scored 21 of his game-high 27 points in the first half here Saturday night as unbeaten and No. 7-ranked West Liberty downed Fairmont State, 106-100, before a raucous crowd at the ASRC.
    Coach Ben Howlett's Hilltoppers (9-0, 6-0) took the lead for good midway through the opening half and led by as many as 19 points after intermission. The Falcons (6-3, 4-2), coming off a 78-74 upset of No. 9 Wheeling Jesuit on Wednesday, mounted a late surge but never got closer than the final score.
    "I'm proud of my guys. I thought they played really well tonight and we needed to play well in order to beat a Fairmont team that is going to win a lot of games," Howlett said.
    "They are really good with the basketball and they play five guards a lot of the time which makes it hard to press them. We couldn't turn them over so we just had to make them take tough shots and beat them in a half-court game."
    This was the first meeting between the two teams since West Liberty beat a No. 1-ranked Fairmont squad in the semifinals of last year's MEC Tournament. Earlier last season, it was the Falcons who handed WLU its first loss, knocking the Hilltoppers out of the No. 1 spot.
    "We've had some great games with Fairmont in recent years and even back when I played," Howlett said, "so we have a lot of respect for each other. We recruited a lot of their guys and they recruited a lot of our guys so we know each other pretty well. It's just a really good small college rivalry."
    Both teams came out firing from the opening tip and Garrett Cook's 3-pointer from the wing – his fourth 3-pointer in less than four minutes – gave Fairmont a 13-10 lead with 16:25 still showing on the first half clock.
    West Liberty's Jordan Watson answered with back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 16-13 WLU with 15:46 on the clock and the Hilltoppers never trailed again.
    Monteroso was virtually unstoppable for the first 20 minutes, mixing drives to the hoop with an assortment of jumpers, floaters and even a dunk off a baseline drive. The 6-3 senior was fouled on a 3-point attempt at the buzzer and swished all three charity tosses for a 62-50 West Liberty lead at the half.
    Fairmont's Jason Jolly made things interesting in the waning minutes, draining five consecutive 3-point bombs to trim an 89-75 Hilltopper advantage to 96-90 with 5 minutes to play but that was as close as the Falcons could get.
    Eric Meininger knocked down a pair of free throws and Watson slipped a pretty pass to Dalton Bolon for a layup to restore the double-digit margin, 100-90, and the Black and Gold coasted home.
    Meininger backed Monteroso with 18 points and 8 rebounds while Watson and Bolon each finished with 15 points. Jolly led six double-figure scorers for the Falcons with 19 points.
    "I'm really comfortable with all 12 of my guys being on the floor in any situation," Howlett said. "The thing that makes me the happiest is seeing the guys who were role players in years past stepping up and contributing big numbers for us now. This is the most unselfish team I've been a part of at West Liberty and that's really saying something."
    The Hilltoppers step out of conference play on Wednesday to host perennial Conference Carolinas power King (Tenn.). Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at the ASRC.