WHEELING, W.Va. – Top-seeded and No. 11-ranked West Liberty punched its ticket to the Mountain East Conference championship game here Saturday night with an 88-81 victory against West Virginia State in a fast-paced MEC Tournament semifinal at WesBanco Arena.
    Coach Ben Howlett's Hilltoppers (26-4) will try to become the first team ever to win an MEC championship and MEC Tournament championship in the same season Sunday at 5 p.m. when they take on Charleston (25-5) in the title game. The Golden Eagles rallied past Fairmont State, 84-77, in Saturday's late semifinal.
    "That's why we're here," said Howlett. "I told the guys coming in that we were on a three-game mission. We weren't coming here to win one or two games. It's all about winning on Sunday. We've given ourselves that opportunity. Now it's up to us to take advantage of it."
    West Liberty and the Yellow Jackets (19-10), who had also been regionally-ranked earlier in the season, battled to a 44-44 deadlock after a see-saw first half and traded blows like heavyweight contenders for the first few minutes of the second half.
    With both teams shooting well over 50 percent from the floor to that point, there were 11 ties and 10 lead changes on the evening. Neither team led by more than four points in the second half until the Hilltoppers' defense and perimeter shooting put the Black and Gold on top to stay.
    After junior guard Dalton Bolon – the MEC Player of the Year – bombed in his fifth 3-pointer of the night to give West Liberty a 62-60 lead, West Virginia State's Michal Seals forged the game's final tie, 62-62, with a driving layup as the clock ticked past the 12-minute mark.
    "Once I saw a couple of shots go down early in the game, it was just a matter of getting to the right spot and making shots," said Bolon, who had been held to a season-low 6 points in Friday's quarterfinal win against Concord. "I know if I do that, my teammates will get me the ball."
    Bolon put the Hilltoppers ahead to stay, 64-62, with a fast break layup and Malik McKinney came up with a steal and fed Will Yoakum for another 3-pointer that brought the partisan WLU crowd to its feet and forced a Yellow Jacket timeout.
    West Liberty forced another turnover coming out of the timeout and Yoakum – who led all scorers with a game-high 31 points after dropping 27 on Concord on Friday – rained in another deep trey for a 70-62 lead with just under 11 minutes to play.
    "Once we got the ball into the middle of the zone, I'm pretty comfortable with stepping into the 'three' from the wing," Yoakum said. "Like Dalton said, our teammates did a great job of getting the ball to us for some great looks."
    State didn't go away, trimming the margin to 70-68 on three straight hoops from freshman jumping jack Anthony Pittman but a 10-foot Bolon jumper and back-to-back hoops from Pat Robinson III restored the 8-point lead, 76-68, and the Hilltoppers held WVSU at bay the rest of the way.
    "That was a high quality basketball game between two really good basketball teams, which is exactly what I expected," Howlett said. "I'm proud of the effort and the fact that we never panicked when things weren't going our way early.
    "We had a lot of guys step up today when we needed them. Dalton and Will were great but I also want to throw a shout out to Malik McKinney. Malik might not get a lot of attention but he did a phenomenal defensive job on (Glen) Abram, especially in the second half. I thought our team defense on the whole was much better in the second half, as well."
    Yoakum was a sizzling 10-of-14 from the floor and 8-of-8 from the foul line to account for his 31 points. Bolon finished with 21 points while Robinson chipped in with a dozen points, 4 assists and 3 steals.
    Abram led West Virginia State with 26 points while Pittman finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Jeremiah Moore also had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds while Seals finished with 12 points and a game-high 6 assists.