Men's Basketball | 3/4/2017 11:12:00 PM

Box Score CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Devin Hoehn poured in a season-high 34 points and No. 11 West Liberty led wire-to-wire here Saturday night in rolling to a 105-95 victory against No. 3 seed Wheeling Jesuit in a Mountain East Conference Tournament semifinal at the Civic Center Coliseum.
Coach Jim Crutchfield's Hilltoppers (27-3) will battle top-seeded and No. 1-ranked Fairmont State (29-1) for the MEC Tournament title Sunday at 3:30 p.m. The Falcons coasted past No. 4 seed Shepherd, 93-65, in Saturday's first semifinal.
West Liberty and Wheeling Jesuit (23-7) had combined for five overtimes in splitting a pair of regular season home wins but Saturday night's rubber match was never close.
The Hilltoppers took control early with a 15-3 blitz to jump out to a whopping 24-9 lead less than six minutes after the opening tap and kept their foot on the gas.
Shooting better than 70 percent from the floor for most of the opening half, the Black and Gold led by as many as 24 points during the latter stages of the first half before settling for a 57-38 advantage at the break.
"I thought we came out with a good level of intensity to start the game," Crutchfield said. "We did shoot the ball well but we also defended really well and didn't give up a lot of second shots. That really helped us open things up."
West Liberty's shooting percentage cooled a bit over the final 20 minutes but the Hilltoppers did more than enough to hold their Ohio County rivals at bay.
Hoehn, one of the top 3-point shooters in WLU and MEC history with more than 300 3-pointers on his resume, hit a trio of 3-pointers but did most of his damage darting into the paint to knock down an assortment of baby hooks and floaters from the 8- to 10-foot range.
"Devin's always been a very good 3-point shooter," Crutchfield said, "but he also has a very good feel for those soft little shots around the basket. This was a great game for him. It was definitely his night."
The Cardinals spent most of the second half trying to chip away at the deficit but never really threatened as West Liberty knocked down 12-of-14 free throws in the final 2 minutes. 
Jesuit briefly got the margin under double-figures, 100-93, on a Pat Moseh 3-pointer with 36 seconds to play but it was too little, too late.
"Once we got into the second half with the big lead, we did a pretty good job of running some clock while still looking to score," Crutchfield said. "That's not an easy thing to do against a team as good as Wheeling but we hung together, played good team basketball and made our free throws to close out a pretty nice win."
Dan Monteroso scored 19 of his 23 points in the second half to back Hoehn's 34-point night while Zac Grossenbacher had another strong game with 16 points and 8 rebounds. James Griffin added 13 points to round out the double-figure scorers. Moseh led five double-figure scorers for WJU with 24 points.
TOURNAMENT NOTES
X Hoehn vaulted into the Top 10 on West Liberty's career scoring list with his big night. He's now No. 9 all-time at WLU with 1,878 points, having passed C.J. Hester (1,863) and Corey McDuffie (1,871)
X West Liberty and Fairmont State traded home wins this season. The Falcons prevailed, 88-83, on Dec. 4 at Joe Retton Arena with the Black and Gold avenging that loss, 88-81, at the ASRC on Feb. 4
X This is the Hilltoppers' second trip to the MEC Tournament championship game. They dropped a 63-60 decision to Charleston in the 2014 title game
X This is also Fairmont's second MEC Tournament championship game appearance. The Falcons lost to Glenville State in the 2015 championship game
X The NCAA Division II Atlantic Region Tournament pairings will be announced at 10:30 p.m.Sunday in a live webcast on the NCAA website (www.NCAA.com)