WHEELING, W.Va. - The top-seeded West Liberty University men's basketball team secured a spot in the Mountain East Conference Tournament championship game for the fifth straight season with a 96-75, wire-to-wire victory over No. 5 seed Notre Dame Saturday night at WesBanco Arena.

Bryce Butler posted a double-double for the second straight night in the tournament, behind a game-high 22 points and career-best 16 rebounds, six of which on the offensive end to lead five Hilltoppers in double digits.

The Hilltoppers never trailed in the game after Butler opened the scoring with a three pointer on the first possession. West Liberty jumped out in front 11-2 energizing the WLU faithful and got up double-digits (20-10) just under seven minutes in, but the Falcons were there to answer with an 8-0 spurt to get back within two points.

Ben Sarson put a halt to the NDC run with a three pointer, starting a mini 8-2 stretch to take back momentum and force a timeout by the Falcons.

West Liberty held Notre Dame scoreless from 6:29-3:09 racking up 10 straight points. Sarson netted the final five points of the first half for the Hilltoppers to give them their largest lead of the game to that point (+14). WLU drained nine first half three pointers (50%) to build the lead and held the Falcons off the scoreboard from beyond the arc (0-7). 

Notre Dame came out of the locker room and used a 10-0 run early in the second half to bring the deficit back to six points, however West Liberty was right there to respond netting eight in a row over a minute and a half to quickly get back up double digits (56-42) with just over 13 minutes remaining.

The game never got back within double-digits after that. A Chaz Hinds layup at the 2:34 mark gave the Hilltoppers their largest lead of the game at 21 points (89-68), which happened once more at the final buzzer after a Grant Barnhart triple closed out the scoring.

West Liberty finished the game shooting 52.5% from the floor and made 12 triples to Notre Dame's 45.2% and two three pointers. 

Zach Rasile led the three-point attack with three long balls, while Sarson and Butler each had two. Sarson finished with 14 points on 4-for-6 shooting and a perfect 4-for-4 mark at the free throw line.

Malik McKinney scored 13 points, while Steve Cannady and Rasile ended with 11 each. West Liberty had 11 different players record a point, as the non-starters outscored Notre Dame's bench 33-8.

Christian Montague and Butler had four assists apiece, Montague's all came in the first half, as WLU dished out 18 assists on 32 baskets.

The Hilltoppers made 26 visits to the free throw line and made 20 (76.9%), their sixth game this season with 20 or more points from the line.

The defensive pressure by the Black and Gold forced 21 Falcon turnovers and WLU turned them into 31 points, 21 of which came in the second half.

West Liberty will look to defend its tournament title and win its fourth conference tournament in the title game tomorrow (Sunday) at 5 pm inside WesBanco Arena against the winner of (2) Fairmont State and (6) Davis & Elkins. In addition to the MountainEast.tv stream, the game will be televised on AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh.

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

Postgame Press Conference

Head Coach Ben Howlett, Ben Sarson, and Bryce Butler