WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The No. 8 ranked West Liberty University men's basketball team hits the road on Saturday for a matchup against Fairmont State, who was tabbed second in the MEC Preseason Poll and received one more first place vote than the Hilltoppers.

THE BASICS
January 14, 2023 | 4:00 pm | Joe Retton Arena (Fairmont, W.Va.)
#8 West Liberty (14-1, 9-0 MEC) at Fairmont State (11-4, 6-3 MEC)
Live stats and video links will be available here.
Fans attending the game are strongly encouraged to purchase their tickets online prior to the game. Click here for tickets.

THE HILLTOPPERS
West Liberty rolled past Frostburg State on Wednesday night at home scoring a season-high 129 points. All 12 Hilltoppers that saw action scored, 11 dished out an assist pulled in a rebound. WLU jumped ahead double digits just over four minutes into the game and took a 31-point lead into the halftime break. The Black and Gold kept the margin above 30 for nearly the entire second half and got it up to as many as 43 points with 6:30 to play on way to the convincing win. A season-high 32 three pointers were made by the Hilltoppers, and they held Frostburg to just three makes from deep.
 
The Hilltoppers are scoring the second most points per game in DII, at 101.2, and have the fourth-best scoring margin, at +20.3. They have won all but two of their games by double digits and seven by 20-plus. West Liberty is shooting 49.8% from the floor, the second-best mark in the MEC, 37.6% from deep. WLU drains a Division II leading 12.5 three pointers per game and has made double-digit threes in 11 games. They also attempt the most triples per game in DII, at 33.3 per game.
 
Defensively, West Liberty forces 19.73 turnovers per game, the fourth most in DII, for a +7.6-turnover margin. 10.9 of those turnovers are steals leading to 'Topper fastbreaks. The Black and Gold has held opponents to five or less threes nine times this season for an opponent three point percentage of 31.2%.
 
West Liberty leads the country in assist-to-turnover ratio, at 1.87 and averages the second most assists per game, at 22.7. WLU dished out 30 assists, the second most this season, in Wednesday's win over Frostburg State.
 
Christian Montague went over 1,000 career points in time split between Walsh to start his career and now his second season at WLU, where he has totaled 403 points. The junior guard has scored double digits in four straight games and went over 1k with a career-high 26 Wednesday night with five three pointers in just 18 minutes of action. Montague one of five Hilltoppers averaging double figures, at 12.0 per game. He is shooting 49.3% from three and averages 2.2 makes per game from deep, the second most on the team. Montague also leads the team averaging 4.0 assists per game and is second in the MEC with a 2.86 assist-to-turnover ratio.
 
Junior guard Bryce Butler recorded his ninth straight 20-point game on Wednesday with 24 and a career-high four three pointers. Butler has made more shots than anyone in Division II this season with 148 field goals and is shooting 61.4% from the floor. He is third in the nation averaging 23.7 points per game and leads the Hilltoppers on the glass at 7.0 rebounds per game. The Latrobe, Pa native has 13 20-point outings in total, three of which went to the 30 mark. He has three double-doubles on the season and has had multiple assists in all but one game. Butler is fourth in the conference with a 2.00 assist-to-turnover ratio, one of three Hilltoppers in the top five of the stat category.
 
Malik McKinney is scoring 13 points per game, the second most on the Hilltopper squad and leads the team at the free throw line shooting 80.9% (55-for-68) from the stripe. McKinney tied his career-high with 24 points last Saturday in the win over Glenville State. He has scored double digits in five straight and eight of the last nine games after posting 13 last time out. McKinney is shooting 52.9% from the field, one of five players making over half their shots.
 
Graduate transfer Steve Cannady nets 11.7 points per game and is shooting 52.1% from the floor. He has had a steal in six straight games ranking second on the team with 22 swipes this year behind Alek West, with 28.
 
Zach Rasile scored 17 points off five three pointers, tying his career-high for the fifth time and second time this season. The McDonald, Ohio native has made 12 threes over his last three games. On the season, Rasile is averaging 2.33 three pointers per game and is shooting 45.5% off the bench for the Hilltoppers.
 
Michael Sampson posted a 13-point, 11-rebound double-double in Wednesday's win and Austin Webb scored a career-best nine points in 12 minutes of action. Chaz Hinds netted 10 points in his second straight start for WLU, with Ben Sarson sidelined. Hinds, a junior transfer, is shooting 50% from beyond the arc (14-for-28) and 52.5% from the field in his first season on the hilltop. Sarson is averaging 10.5 points per game and shooting 40% from deep but has been out the last two games.
 
Nine players average double-digit minutes for the Black and Gold with Butler leading the way at 29.1 minutes per game.
 
The Hilltoppers have now won 21 straight MEC regular season contests dating to mid-January of last year, a 100-97 loss versus Fairmont State. West Liberty is 5-0 on the road this season, four of which were MEC road trips.

THE FIGHTING FALCONS
Fairmont State got out to a 5-0 start and was ranked as high as 12^th in the country at the end of November. An overtime loss at West Virginia State began a string of three straight losses that include slip ups at Concord and home against Glenville State. Since, the Falcons have won six of their last seven including three straight heading into the matchup.
 
The Falcons had their highest scoring conference game in the most recent win over Wheeling on the road Wednesday night, 107-85. They are averaging a +12.4-scoring margin and it was their fourth game over 100 points, as Fairmont State ranks fourth in DII scoring 92.9 points per game. The Falcons are leading the conference with a 50.1% field goal percentage, 17^th in DII, and a 40.7% three-point percentage, 14^th in DII. Fairmont State averages the fourth most three pointers per game in DII, at 11.6. Fairmont leads the conference with a 76.5% mark from the free throw line, as well.
 
On the defensive end, Fairmont State is holding opponents to 44.2% shooting and a 40.3% clip from beyond the arc. They force just under 16 turnovers a game and average 9.9 steals, the 13^th most in DII ranking second in the conference.
 
The Falcons are second in the MEC with a +4.8-rebounding margin, as well as an average of 19.9 assists per game, the fifth most in DII. Rebounding by committee, four Falcons average over five-plus rebounds per game, but no player averages over 5.5 rebounds per game.
 
Six players score double digits for the Falcons, led by 6'5" graduate student Isaiah Sanders at 17.9 points per game ranking fourth in the conference. Sanders is 11^th in DII and atop the MEC draining 3.25 three pointers per game and is shooting a conference-best 46.4% from deep. He is coming off a 17-point, 7-assist outing in the blowout win at Wheeling on Wednesday.
 
Hale Fonz, a senior guard, is also top-five in the MEC from long-range making 2.44 triples per game. Fonz averages 13.8 points per game and is fifth in the conference dishing out 4.1 assists per game.
 
Senior guard, Zyon Dobbs scores 11.1 points per game and averages 4.7 assists, the third most in the MEC. 6'8" senior center Tariq Woody (67.8%) and sophomore George Mangas (55.2%) are top-five in the conference in field goal percentage and score 10.9 and 12.9 points per game, respectively.
 
Fairmont State is 0-2 against ranked opponents with losses at then No. 25 West Virginia State and No. 19 Virginia Union, both of which in overtime. This will be the first home game against a nationally ranked opponent. The Falcons are 6-1 in Joe Retton Arena this season.

THE SERIES
The Falcons have the slight edge all-time (97-84) against the Hilltoppers heading into the 182^nd meeting between the schools. The first meeting was 99 years ago in the 1923-24 inaugural season for WLU, Fairmont State won the matchup 39-26. In recent history, West Liberty has won 23 of the 30 meetings since 2010. In three meetings last year, the Hilltoppers went 2-1. After dropping a home game to Fairmont State in mid-January, 100-97, West Liberty took down the Falcons in Fairmont (110-107 in OT) then again (117-96) in the MEC Tournament semifinals. West Liberty is 7-5 in the last 12 games at Fairmont, including each of the last three.

NEXT UP
West Liberty hosts Alderson Broaddus on Wednesday for its first rematch of the season. Tip off inside the ASRC is scheduled for 7:30 pm.

Follow Hilltopper basketball all season online at HilltopperSports.com and on Twitter (@WLU_Hoops | @WLathletics), Instagram (@wlu_mbb | @wlu_athletics), and Facebook.