Men's Basketball | 1/6/2018 6:47:00 PM

Box Score

    WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The unbeaten and No. 4-ranked West Liberty University men's basketball rolled to its 41st consecutive home win on Saturday with a 106-80 victory against Charleston at the ASRC.
    Coach Ben Howlett's high-flying Hilltoppers (13-0, 8-0) opened the game with a 15-4 burst and never looked back in handing the Golden Eagles (8-6, 4-4) their most lop-sided loss of the season.
    "One of the things we really stressed in our shootaround was taking our denials personally in the press and I thought the guys did a great job of that tonight," Howlett said. "We put a lot of emphasis on starting fast and that created some opportunities that led to us getting some early separation."
    West Liberty had trouble finding the range early as the game was scoreless for nearly two full minutes. In fact, neither team hit the scoreboard until Howlett had already made his first 5-man substitution.
    Tyler Primmer broke the scoring ice off a feed from Nate Allen at 18:06 of the first half and the Black and Gold were on their way.
    Three straight 3-pointers from Brandon Smith, Jordan Watson and Evan French fueled the 15-4 start and the Hilltoppers kept the accelerator mashed to the floor when the starting five returned to the court.
    Back-to-back 3-pointers from James Griffin and Evan French capped another 15-2 surge that pushed the margin to 20 points, 31-11, as the clock ticked past the 10-minute mark and UC never threatened again.
    Watson went 3-for-3 from behind the 3-point arc in the first half and Griffin had a dozen points by intermission as West Liberty coasted into the break with a whopping 57-30 lead.
    "I love my guys," Howlett said. "When the first platoon goes out, I want the second platoon to ramp up the intensity and that's exactly what they did tonight.
    "We have a bunch of scrappy, gritty kids with no egos. They don't care who scores as long as West Liberty scores and that's a coach's dream."
    The Hilltoppers breezed through the second half, leading by as many as 32 points down the stretch in sprinting past the century mark for the 11th time this season.
    Watson, a senior transfer who averaged double-figures each of the past two seasons at Lincoln (Pa.) University, says he has embraced his new role coming off the bench with the Hilltoppers.
    "Coach (Howlett) and I talked about it before the season," Watson said. "He told me my job was to bring great energy to the court every time I'm on the floor. I want to pick up the tempo and leave my imprint on the game and I felt like I was able to do that tonight.
    "As a team, all we care about is West Liberty winning. That's what it says on our jerseys."
    With 14 points and a game-high 4 assists, Watson was one of five double-figure scorers on a night that saw every Hilltopper in uniform make at least one shot from the floor.
    Griffin led the way with 19 points while Eric Meininger added 16 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Smith chipped in with a dozen tallies and All-American Dan Monteroso finished with 11 points.
    Lamont McManus led all scorers for Charleston with 26 points but Shaq Speights was the only other UC player to reach double-figures with 12 points.
    "This was a good win over a very good team," Howlett said. "Coach (Dwaine) Osborne does a great job with them and they are really big inside. They took (No. 19) Wheeling Jesuit to overtime on Thursday and they're going to make a lot of noise over the second half of the season."
    West Liberty heads south on Thursday for a 7:30 p.m. game at UVa-Wise.