WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University men's basketball team held Davis & Elkins to just 5 points over the final 10 minutes of the first half Wednesday night and cruised to their 10th straight win, 100-73, before a large and loud crowd at the ASRC.
    Coach Ben Howlett's Hilltoppers (16-3, 11-2) shot a blistering 57 percent from the floor and led the Senators (6-13, 4-9) by as many as 34 points in the second half as they maintained their one-game lead in the Mountain East Conference standings.
    "I thought we played pretty well at both ends of the floor in the first half," Howlett said. "We didn't shoot great from the 3-point line tonight (6-of-24) but I don't get mad at guys for missing shots. If they miss one, I think they're going to make the next 10. That's the kind of confidence I have in our shooters."
    Davis & Elkins got a layup from Myles Monroe as the first half clock approached the 10-minute mark, cutting the WLU lead to 26-21, but that's when the Hilltopper defense slammed the door.
    West Liberty scored 23 of the last 28 points in the half to all but put the game out of reach, 49-26, at intermission.
    The Senators nearly doubled their production over the final 20 minutes, putting 47 points on the board in the second half, but never got closer than 22 points the rest of the way.
    Despite the 27-point win, Howlett wasn't thrilled with his team's play after their halftime chat.
    "We definitely didn't bring our 'A' game in the second half," Howlett said. "They spread us out in the half-court and we didn't do a very good job staying in front of people. That's not West Liberty basketball and it's something we'll address in practice this week. Hopefully, we got this game out of our system."
    The Hilltoppers delivered another balanced scoring ledger. Will Yoakum led the way with 21 points while Pat Robinson III tossed in 12 of his 19 points after intermission. Preston Boswell went 6-for-7 from the floor to finish with 16 points and reigning MEC Player of the Week Dalton Bolon charted his fourth consecutive double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
    It was the 17th double-figure scoring night of the season for Robinson, a sophomore transfer who is averaging nearly 18 points a game off the bench by combining an assortment of nifty finishes at the rim with a deadly perimeter shot.
    "We have a lot of great shooters but when the shots aren't falling, you try to find different ways to score," Robinson said. "There's usually a lot of room to attack the rim because of our spacing and if the defense helps out, I can just kick it back out to an open shooter."
    Erkam Kiris had a game-high 22 points for Davis & Elkins with Tyler Twyman adding 15 in a losing cause.
    The surging Hilltoppers hit the road on Saturday for a 4 p.m. tipoff at West Virginia Wesleyan.