WEST LIBERTY - When you lose four seniors who combined for more than 5,000 points, you're not supposed to go out the following season and lock up a conference championship before Valentine's Day.
Not that West Liberty cares. The Hilltoppers continued to show no love to the rest of the West Virginia Conference as they beat second-place Alderson-Broaddus 107-73 on Monday night and wrapped up their third consecutive league title.
They did it the same way they always do it - 100 miles an hour. They had 50 points at halftime, a 32-point lead with 5:43 remaining and an opposing coach vowing revenge after the buzzer sounded. It was the 10th time they reached the century mark in the last 11 games.
Article Photos
PHOTO PROVIDED BY WLU
West Liberty point guard Cedric Harris takes a jump shot over the defense of Alderson-Broaddus’ Nate Barnes on Monday night.
''I heard people thought we might be a little bit down this year,'' WLU coach Jim Crutchfield said. ''I hate to disappoint them, but we're playing pretty good.''
Indeed.
It was 16-2 after three blinks of an eye and A-B never did get its deficit down under double digits.
Crutchfield was a little surprised by that. He figured if any WVC team was going to give his team a run for its money - the Hilltoppers have won 58 straight conference games - it was going to be the one in second place with still a mathematical chance at a crown. As it is, the gap between one and two in the league appears to be right around 34 points.
''It's shocking to win a conference championship this early,'' Crutchfield said. ''It's surprising; it's something I didn't think would happen. We lost a lot of players off last year's team. These guys have stepped up with a great level of intensity.''
Four players scored in double digits for West Liberty (23-1 overall, 18-0 WVC), led by Chris Morrow's 27. C.J. Hester added 17 and Alex Falk wound up with 12. They all had a great view of Cedric Harris' boxscore-filling night. He had 15 points, 11 assists, seven rebounds and four steals in 31 minutes.
''I though Cedric Harris was awfully strong,'' Crutchfield said. ''He was quick to the basket, he was finishing strong, he was finding people.''
The Battlers (17-6, 14-5), who trailed by as many as 21 on a couple of different occasions during the first half, got it down to 14 on a 3-pointer by Casey Ainslie just before the halftime horn.
A-B made the first basket of the second half to get to within 12, then found itself in another three-touchdown deficit barely 4 minutes later.
Tim Hausfeld helped with that, as he drained a 3-pointer from the end zone of the football field.
''They're starting to play together like you expect a team to play together here at West Liberty,'' Crutchfield said. 'I think once we reached 20, they knew it was an uphill battle then.''
Ainslie paced A-B with 19 points. Kurklin Bohanon added 17 and Nate Barnes finished with 16.