Men's Basketball | 3/10/2020 3:52:00 PM

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. – After becoming the first Mountain East Conference team to win regular-season and tournament championships in the same season, the West Liberty University men's basketball team has earned a Top 10 spot in the final NCAA Division II coaches' poll for the 14^th time in the last 15 seasons.
    Coach Ben Howlett's surging Hilltoppers (27-4) jumped all the way up to No. 7 on Tuesday when the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) released its final NCAA Division II Top 25 of the season.
    West Liberty heads into its 11^th consecutive NCAA Division II Tournament on quite a roll, having won 21 of its last 22 games – including a three-game sweep of last week's MEC Tournament in Wheeling. The Hilltoppers capped their tournament title run on Sunday with a 73-60 victory against a Charleston squad that is also among the teams receiving votes in this week's poll.
    The No. 7 final ranking marks the 148^th Top 10 ranking in school history for the Hilltopper program and 176^th Top 25 appearance overall. The 148 Top 10 rankings are the fourth-highest in NCAA Division II history while the 176 poll appearances rank No. 6.
    The Black and Gold is serving as co-host of this weekend's NCAA Division II Atlantic Region tournament along with No. 6-ranked Indiana, Pa. (28-2). West Liberty, seeded No. 2 in the region, takes on No. 7 seed Virginia State (19-9) Friday at 5 p.m. inside the ASRC.
       Team (FPV)                                                 Rec          Pts       Pvs
  1. NW Missouri State                                31-1         400           1
  2. Lincoln Memorial (Tenn.)                    32-1         381           2
  3. West Texas A&M                                   32-1         368           3
  4. UC-San Diego                                          30-1         355           4
  5. Florida Southern                                    29-2         336           5
  6. Indiana (Pa.)                                           28-2         320           7
  7. WEST LIBERTY                                        27-4         299         11
  8. Azusa Pacific (Calif.)                              25-4         270           6
  9. St. Edward's (Texas)                              27-4         264           9
10. Valdosta State (Ga.)                              26-4         245           8
11. St. Thomas Aquinas (N.Y.)                   25-5         226         18
12. Alabama-Huntsville                               26-5         213         19
13. Bridgeport (Conn.)                                24-4         184         14
14. Jefferson (Pa.)                                        27-4         175         12
15. Indianapolis (Ind.)                                 24-6         161         13
16. Ferris State (Mich.)                               27-6         156         10
17. Northern State (S.D.)                            26-6         153         21
18. Rogers State (Okla.)                              24-6         113         15
19. Missouri-St. Louis                                  27-6         102         16
20. Nova Southeastern (Fla.)                     23-6           97         20
21. Missouri Southern                                 23-8           89         21
22. UNC-Pembroke                                      24-6           73         17
23. Queens (N.C.)                                         24-7           44         25
24. Point Loma (Calif.)                                 24-6           39        NR
25. Cal Poly-Pomona                                   23-7           30        NR
       Others receiving votes: Dixie State (Utah) 23, Saint Anselm (N.H.) 14, Truman State (Mo.) 14, CHARLESTON 10, Southern Nazarene (Okla.) 10, Chico State (Calif.) 9, SE Oklahoma State 5, Lee (Tenn.) 4, Michigan Tech 4, Shippensburg (Pa.) 2, Seattle Pacific (Wash.) 1.