Men's Basketball | 3/6/2020 9:23:00 PM

Box Score     WHEELING, W.Va. – Sophomore guard Will Yoakum scored his 1,000^th career point and No. 11 West Liberty led by as many as 30 points in the second half here Friday in rolling to a 100-85 victory against Concord in a Mountain East Conference Tournament quarterfinal.
    It was the 19^th win in the last 20 games for Coach Ben Howlett's top-seeded Hilltoppers (25-4), who advanced to Saturday's 6 p.m. semifinal against No. 4 seed West Virginia State (19-9), which held off No. 5 seed Wheeling, 67-61, in Friday's late quarterfinal matchup.
    Charleston (24-5), the No. 2 seed, and No. 3 seed Fairmont State (23-6), will collide in Saturday;s 8:15 p.m. semifinal. Charleston outlasted West Virginia Wesleyan, 71-59, while Fairmont State eked out a 77-70 nod against Glenville State in Friday's afternoon quarterfinals.
    "We got off to a pretty good start tonight," Howlett said, "and for about the first 10 minutes of the second half, it was West Liberty basketball to a 'T.' We were sharing the ball, guys were passing up good shots for great shots, we were forcing tempo and turnovers and playing great team basketball."
    Yoakum, a first-team All-MEC selection this season after earning MEC Freshman of the Year honors a year ago, helped fuel the Hilltoppers' fast start with 17 first-half points. He finished the night with a game-high 27 points on sizzling 11-of-15 shooting from the floor to become the 51^st member of WLU's 1,000-Point Club with 1,008 career points.
    "Coach Howlett has a lot of confidence in me and my teammates do a great job getting me good looks," Yoakum said. "I saw a couple shots go down early and just kept going."
    Concord (12-18) kept pace with WLU for the first few minutes but back-to-back 3-pointers from Luke Dyer put the Black and Gold ahead to stay, 21-17, as the clock ticked past the 13-minute mark and sparked a 17-2 West Liberty blackout that sent the Hilltoppers into the under-10 media timeout with a 32-19 advantage.
    Dyer – who finished with a career-high 16 points – and Pat Robinson III combined for 15 of those 17 points.
    "It seemed like they were leaving me open on the double-team today," Dyer said, "so I wound up getting some wide-open looks. The ball felt really good in my hands today."
    The Hilltoppers carried a 55-42 lead into the halftime locker room and it didn't take long for the knockout blow to land when play resumed.
    A 3-pointer by the Mountain Lions' Trey Brisco cut the margin to 63-52 with 17:27 on the clock but a driving layup and rebound hoop from Yoakum sparked another lengthy WLU run that put the game in ice.
    Robinson, a sophomore guard who transferred from Holy Family (Pa.) this season and earned second-team All-MEC honors, was a major fact in the second half spurt, as well.
    Not only did he back Yoakum's output with a 22-point night, the 6-3 southpaw stuffed the stat sheet with 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals.
    "Playing with these guys is a great opportunity to showcase your whole game," Robinson said with a smile. "It's so easy to get assists here. We have so many really good players, you can get the ball to anybody and they're probably going to make the shot."
    Owen Hazelbaker's 3-point bomb from the left corner capped a 23-4 Hilltopper surge that created the game's first 30-point lead, 86-56, with 11:32 still on the clock. With an eye toward Saturday night's semifinal matchup, Howlett's squad took their foot off the gas the rest of the way and coasted across the finish line.
    "We did get away from the things that had got us that lead coming down the stretch. I wasn't happy about that but I'm always happy anytime we get a win in this tournament," Howlett said. "The hard part now is we have less than 24 hours to come back and play a really good basketball team."
    Brisco topped Concord with 26 points while Ethan Heller and Malik Johnson added 17 and 12 points, respectively, in a losing cause.