WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The No. 13-ranked West Liberty men's basketball team led by as many as 25 points in the second half here Saturday in coasting to a 90-76 victory against Ohio County rival Wheeling inside the ASRC.
    It was the 18th win in the last 19 games for Coach Ben Howlett's surging Hilltoppers (24-4, 19-3) as they head into next week's Mountain East Conference Tournament under a full head of steam.
    The Cardinals (14-12, 11-11) kept things interesting for much of the first half, going up 27-25 when Emmanuel Ansong sailed coast to coast for a layup with 5:14 on the clock.
    Marlon Moore Jr. answered at the other end with a short jumper as the clock ticked past the 5- minute mark and it was all West Liberty for the rest of the half. The aggressive Hilltopper defense held Wheeling to just one field goal over the last 5 minutes as a series of turnovers fueled a 14-3 surge that sent the Black and Gold into the locker room with a 39-30 lead.
    West Liberty shifted into overdrive when play resumed, outscoring the Cardinals by a 24-9 margin over the first 6 1/2 minutes of the second half. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Moore followed by a Malik McKinney bonus bomb pushed the lead to 63-39 with 13:30 to go and the hosts never looked back.
    The Hilltoppers opened up a 76-51 lead with less than eight minutes to play but the scrappy Cardinals took advantage of some sloppy WLU play down the stretch to make the final margin a bit more respectable.
    "I liked the last five minutes of the first half and the first 10 minutes of the second half but I didn't like the rest of it all that much," Howlett said. "The guys are probably sick of hearing me talk about passing all the time but when we're a good passing team, we're a good basketball team. It's that simple."
    Will Yoakum and Malik McKinney paced a balanced attack for West Liberty with 17 and 16 points, respectively. Dalton Bolon had another double-double – his 12^th of the season – with 15 points and 11 rebounds while Pat Robinson III matched him with 15 points. Freshman Bryce Butler added 11 points in 25 strong minutes off the bench.
    "Will was excellent as usual tonight," Howlett said, "and I thought Bryce and Malik were really good for us, as well. We still need to get better at closing out games but I said from the beginning that with all the new guys, we were a team that would improve as the season went along and I'm still seeing that. That being said, there's always room to get better."
    Wheeling finished the night with 14 turnovers against just one assist but got a game-high 25 points from Jordan Reid, who was 13-of-14 from the foul line. Ansong just missed a double-double with 13 points and 9 rebounds.
    The three-time defending MEC champion Hilltoppers earned a first-round bye as the No. 1 seed in next week's MEC Tournament and won't make their post-season debut until Friday's 6 p.m. quarterfinal when they take on the winner of Wednesday's game between Notre Dame and Concord.
    This will be the seventh Mountain East Conference tournament since the league debuted during the 2013-14 season. No regular season champion has ever gone on to win the MEC Tournament in the same year – a situation Howlett and the Hilltoppers are determined to change.
    "For the guys who were here last year, that Notre Dame game (a 100-96 WLU loss in the championship game) still lingers," Howlett said. "We're going to take the next two days off and then we're going to go on a three-day mission.
    "It starts on Friday with whoever we play. Whether we make shots or we don't make shots, we are going to play as hard as we possibly can. Effort overcomes mistakes. Effort overcomes missed shots. Effort wins games in March."