The No. 2-ranked West Liberty University men's basketball team won
its 17th straight game Saturday afternoon but it didn't come without a
fight.
Coach Jim Crutchfield's
Hilltoppers (19-1, 14-0) had to overcome a rare halftime deficit and
hold off upset-minded Concord (10-8, 7-7) in the waning seconds to
escape the Carter Center with a 103-98 victory.
The Mountain Lions
scored the last 9 points of the first half to take a 49-48 lead into the
locker room and led by as many as 7 points in the early part of the
second half before West Liberty hit the comeback trail in earnest.
Stellar freshmen C.J.
Hester and Shawn Dyer keyed a Hilltopper rally with a strong Hester post
move giving West Liberty the lead for good at 80-79.
The Hilltoppers pushed the
lead out to 93-85 with just 5 minutes remaining but Concord – which shot
nearly 60 percent from the floor on the day – mounted one final surge.
Back-to-back hoops from
Mike Boyd and Javaughn Manuel closed the gap to a single point, 97-96,
as the clock turned under a minute but West Liberty was able to maintain
its composure.
Working deep into the
shot clock, Cedric Harris fired a bullet pass to Chris Morrow on the low
block for a 99-96 WLU margin with 39 seconds left.
Morrow then came up big at
the other end with a blocked shot that gave the ball back to West
Liberty with 15 seconds left. Hester tossed in a pair of free throws
after being fouled on the in-bounds play and Tim Hausfeld wrapped up the
scoring with two more charity tosses following a Shrewsbury hoop with
just 6 ticks remaining.
Hester followed up his
career-high 31-point performance at Bluefield State on Thursday with a
game-high 29 points and a career-high 14 rebounds to lead the
Hilltoppers. Dyer added plenty of support with 23 points – including an
11-of-13 showing from the charity stripe – to go along with 6 rebounds
and 4 assists.
Alex Falk finished with 18 points while Hausfeld checked in with 13 to round out the double-figure scorers.
Manuel
set the pace for Concord with 26 points while Cory Willard finished
with 20 and Romel Kemp had 17. Corey Neeley came off the bench to add 11
points.
The Mountain Lions shot
39-of-66 (59.1 percent) from the floor, hit 8-of-20 3-point attempts and
were 12-of-16 from the charity stripe.
West
Liberty went 36-of-72 (50 percent) from the floor, made 7-of-13
3-pointers and cashed in 24-of-30 free throws – 22-of-25 in the second
half.
The Hilltoppers return home to host Shepherd on Wednesday. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at the ASRC.
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