WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University men's basketball team left no doubt here Saturday night in rolling to their seventh straight win, routing Frostburg State, 125-77, at the ASRC.
    Coach Ben Howlett's Hilltoppers (13-3, 8-2) reeled off 20 unanswered points to open up a 32-9 lead midway through the first half and the Bobcats (6-10, 3-7) never recovered.
    "The No. 1 thing we talked about before the game today was, 'Let's be good passers,' " Howlett said "and I think right around the last media timeout with 5 or so minutes to go we had 25 assists and only four turnovers. That means we're taking care of the ball and sharing the ball. When we share the basketball, it creates a lot of good looks and when our guys are getting good looks, I'm very confident we're going to make them."
    West Liberty cruised into halftime with a 61-26 lead. The margin grew to 53 points, 99-46, with just under 12 minutes remaining and hovered around the 50-point mark the rest of the way.
    Once again leading the nation in scoring at 106.8 ppg., WLU has put up some impressive numbers during the current 7-game winning streak. Blowing past the century mark in all 7 games, the Black and Gold have averaged 111.9 ppg. and outscored their opponents by an average of more than 34 points a night during the surge.
    "I said early on that this team had the potential to take off on an extended run," Howlett said. "The key was that no one panicked when we lost a couple of early games. I give my guys a lot of credit. We didn't change a thing. They just shut out the outside noise and kept working their tails off in practice."
    With Howlett substituting freely throughout, no Hilltopper played more than 22 minutes on Saturday but six of them hit double figures. Reigning MEC Player of the Week Will Yoakum tallied a game-high 25 points in just 19 minutes while Pat Robinson III and Bryce Butler donated 22 and 20 points, respectively.
    Yoakum and Butler accompanied Howlett to the post-game media session.
    "Coming off a bit of an emotional win against Fairmont on Wednesday, I had some concerns about today," Howlett said, "but I'm proud of the way my guys responded. Like a lot of our guys, these two (nodding toward Yoakum and Butler) keep getting better every day. They hardly ever say a word. They just give 100 percent effort in practice and carry that over to the court. That's West Liberty basketball."
    Junior All-American Dalton Bolon posted his third double-double of the season with 18 points and a game-high 12 rebounds while Jon Alessandro added 13 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Preston Boswell rounded out the double-figure scorers with 13 points and a game-high 6 assists for the Black and Gold.
    The Hilltoppers shot 53 percent (45-of-85) from the floor and 46 percent (15-of-33) from the 3-point arc while forcing 18 turnovers and dominating the glass at both ends by a 51-35 margin.
    Daniel Alexander and Joe Adedayo led the way for Frostburg State with 24 and 22 points, respectively.
    West Liberty will be back in action on Wednesday when the Hilltoppers host Urbana. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at the ASRC.