Men's Basketball | 1/13/2018 5:35:00 PM

Box Score

    ATHENS, W.Va. – Unbeaten and No. 3-ranked West Liberty never trailed Saturday as the Black and Gold outgunned Concord, 119-110, in Mountain East Conference action at the Carter Center.
    Coach Ben Howlett's league-leading Hilltoppers (15-0, 10-0) led by as many as 23 points in the second half before a late flurry by the Mountain Lions (8-7, 5-5) got the final margin into single digits.
    West Liberty was in control, 63-49, at intermission and got a Dalton Bolon 3-pointer and a conventional 3-point play from Dan Monteroso in the opening minute of the second half to push the margin to 69-49.
    The Hilltoppers seemed primed for yet another blowout win when Tyler Primmer cashed in a feed from Nate Allen for a 75-53 bulge at 15:17 but Concord - which was coming off a tough 69-67 loss to No. 19 Wheeling Jesuit on Thursday - still had some fight left.
    Senior guard B.J. Hamlet answered with one of his career-high 8 3-pointers less than 10 seconds later and the Mountain Lions hit the comeback trail in earnest.
    Tommy Bolte, who leads the nation in scoring at 32.3 ppg., hit a layup as the clock ticked past the 10-minute mark to cap a 22-9 Concord surge and trim the deficit to 84-75.
    Primmer and Jordan Watson hit back-to-back 3-pointers to push the lead back out to 15 points, 90-75. The hosts whittled the lead down to 110-105 with just over a minute to go but West Liberty went 9-for-10 from the line down the stretch to salt the game away.
    Bolon poured in a career-high 30 points with 5 3-pointers and a team-high 5 assists to lead the WLU scoring while Monteroso added 28 points and combined with Bolon to go 15-of-18 from the foul line.
    Watson chipped in with 15 points with Evan French coming off the bench for a dozen. Primmer had 11 points and James Griffin rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10.
    Hamlet led all scorers with 38 points, highlighted by 8-for-13 shooting from the 3-point arc. Held to just 2 points in the first half, Bolte wound up with a double-double of 23 points and 10 rebounds. Jyles Webster finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds while Trey Brisco added 12 points in a losing cause.
    The West Liberty men return home to host Urbana on Wednesday. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at the ASRC.