Men's Basketball | 2/8/2018 10:14:00 PM

Box Score

    WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The No. 5-ranked West Liberty University men's basketball team continued to pull away from the rest of the Mountain East Conference here Thursday night with a 110-87 blowout of West Virginia State at the ASRC.
    The win by Coach Ben Howlett's high-flying Hilltoppers (21-1, 16-1), coupled with Fairmont State's upset loss at UVa-Wise, gives the Black and Gold a 3-game lead over the rest of the MEC with only 5 games left in the regular season.
    Not that anybody in the West Liberty locker room is paying attention to the standings.
    "I really don't focus on any of that stuff unless somebody says something to me about how well we're playing or how big a lead we have," junior guard Evan French said during the post-game press conference. "I tell them, 'Thanks for telling me but we have a tough game coming up that I need to prepare for.'
    "None of us really look ahead. We all believe that if we take care of business every night, the other things will take care of themselves."
    The Hilltoppers had a tough time sustaining any momentum in the opening 20 minutes and settled for a 48-43 lead at intermission.
    It was a different story when play resumed as West Liberty opened the second half with an 8-1 burst to open up a 56-44 lead and stayed in control the rest of the way, leading by as many as 25 points down the stretch.
    "I thought Evan and James (Griffin) really gave us some great minutes tonight," Howlett said. "We could have been in trouble in the first half if it wasn't for Evan coming in to hit some big shots for us and James' highlight reel dunk really got everyone excited when we broke it open in the second half."
    All-American Dan Monteroso poured in 24 points to pace six double-figure scorers in a typically-balanced Hilltopper attack.
    Dalton Bolon scored 17 of his 19 points after intermission while Jordan Watson had a big game off the bench with 17 points, 3 assists and 2 steals. French had 11 of his 13 points in the first half and Brandon Smith finished with 11 tallies.
    Griffin, on the rebound from flu-like symptoms that sidelined him for all but a few minutes of WLU's last game, had 10 points, 6 rebounds and a game-high 5 assists along with a spectacular tomahawk dunk that punctuated a back-breaking run midway through the second half.
    "Once we get on a roll and the crowd gets into it like it did tonight, we just seem able to take it up a notch into overdrive," French said. "When James got that dunk tonight, the whole bench jumped up. The steals, layups, 3-pointers, all of that. We really feed off that energy."
    Pat Johnson-Agwu had a game-high 27 points for State while Ernest Jenkins added 17 in a losing cause.
    West Liberty heads to Charleston on Saturday for a 4 p.m. game at the Wehrle Athletic Arena.