INDIANA, Pa. – The No. 2-seeded West Liberty University men's basketball team moved on to the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region semifinals here Saturday with a 106-99 quarterfinal win in overtime here Saturday afternoon at the Kovalchick Center on the campus of Indiana (Pa.) University.
    Coach Ben Howlett's Hilltoppers (27-4) will take on CIAA regular season and tournament champion Virginia State (28-4) in Sunday's 5 p.m. semifinal. The No. 3-seeded Trojans beat a short-handed Notre Dame squad, 89-81, in Saturday's first quarterfinal.
    East Stroudsburg's Troy Jones scored on a fast break with 17 seconds left in regulation to force overtime and the Warriors (21-8) carried a 96-92 lead into the final three minutes of overtime but West Liberty responded.
    "That was an incredible battle for 45 minutes between two outstanding college basketball teams," Howlett said. "I'm sorry that one of us had to lose but I'm incredibly proud of the way my team rose to the challenge and finished at the end. Our five seniors were not going to let us lose."
    Freshman guard Yahel Hill started the winning rally with a pair of charity tosses at the 2:38 mark and the WLU press forced a 5-second call on the in-bounds.
    Senior "point-center" Eric Meininger found a wide-open Luke Dyer for a  3-pointer to put the Black and Gold ahead to stay, 97-96, with 2:30 on the clock and the Hilltoppers never looked back, scoring 14 of the game's final 17 points over the last 2:38 to seal the victory.
    Meininger, the team's lone senior starter, scored 19 points and added a game-high 8 assists while fellow senior Evan French added 15 big points off the bench on 5-of-7 shooting from the 3-point arc.
    "I think Eric is one of the best passing big guys in the nation," Howlett said. "He's a tough matchup for the other team's center and I'm probably more comfortable with the ball in his hands than anyone on the team.
    "We told Evan and (sophomore guard) Dalton Bolon in practice that they were probably going to get a chance to get some shots up in transition and they made the most of it. I think they're two of the better 3-point shooters in the country and they were huge today."
    There weren't many happy faces in the Hilltopper seating section in the opening half as East Stroudsburg used a late burst in which it scored on 10 of 11 possessions to take its largest lead of the day, 48-34, before Bolon closed out the half with a 3-pointer for a 48-37 tally at intermission.
    It was the largest halftime deficit of the season for WLU but Howlett and his players took it in stride.
    "Even though we were behind at the half, everything with the players and coaches was extremely positive," Howlett said. "I thought we played really good basketball the first 10 minutes of the second half. Our pressure started to have an effect, we made good passes which led to good shots and we took better care of the basketball."
    Bolon, an All-MEC and All-Region selection, also had 5 3-pointers to finish with a team-high 29 points while Hill rounded out the double-figure scorers with 14 tallies.
    Ryan Smith, ESU's 6-10 freshman center, had game-highs of 30 points and 13 rebounds while Nick Giordano added 19 points.
    "We had gone out in the first round (of the NCAA Tournament) the past couple of seasons," Meininger said, "and that left a bad taste in our mouths. It feels good to get the win for the program and for Coach Howlett. That's our motivation this weekend."