West Liberty Captures MEC Tournament Championship
Hilltoppers earn title with 73-60 victory over UC
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WHEELING -- For the past decade, West Liberty has taken home championship after championship. Whether it's a regular season, conference tournament or Atlantic region title, the Hilltoppers have claimed it. However, even though West Liberty has tournament championships under its belt, there has been one thing that the Hilltoppers haven't done: win the Mountain East Conference Tournament as the top seed.
Mission accomplished.
For the first time in MEC history, the top seed on the men's side got to cut down the nets as the Hilltoppers defeated Charleston, 73-60 Sunday at WesBanco Arena.
"I said this last year. I think it's harder to win the regular season than the conference tournament," West Liberty coach Ben Howlett said. "But, I really wanted to win this thing. I told our guys on Tuesday last week, this is a three-day mission and mission accomplished. We won three really tough games. It's hard to win three games in a row and you have to have a lot of stuff go your way, but I thought the key to (Sunday's) game was our half court defense. It was the best defensive effort that we've had all season long. They had a hard time getting shots in the second half. I'm just really proud of our guys' effort."
The Hilltoppers were able to get to the title game last season as the top seed, but fell to Notre Dame College, 100-96.
"It's a relief to have it back at West Liberty. We felt like one slipped away last year," Howlett said. "And I think our returning players had a sour taste in their mouth from then. They were just so dialed in to this tournament and I just thought (Sunday's) game was maximum effort. It was maximum effort for our guys and it was really fun to watch."
And what was fun to watch was the Hilltoppers' defense. After allowing a Eddie Colbert layup to put the score at 21-17 at the 9:30 mark, West Liberty allowed one field goal the rest of the half.
Marlon Moore tied the game at 21-21, but the junior was just getting started. He drilled a 3-pointer to give West Liberty a 24-21 lead. It was a lead the Hilltoppers would not relinquish.
Moore put West Liberty up by 10 as he swished another long ball as the score read 33-23 with 1:43 remaining in the first half.
The junior finished with a game-high 24 points and five blocks. He also grabbed five boards.
"That was the best I've ever seen him play," Howlett said about Moore. "And not only was he making shots, he was also blocking shots, he was altering shots and was pulling tough rebounds down. Those weren't easy and when you have a guy like Lamont McManus, Marlon is in there working. I'm just so proud of him and hopefully he can continue to play at a high level for us."
Will Yoakum continued his impressive three-day stretch. Two days after securing his 1,000th point and a day after 31-point performance, the sophomore shot 5 of 9 from the field good for 11 points and grabbed six boards to earn the Mountain East Conference Tournament MVP.
"It was a good three games for me. I struggled a little bit (Sunday)," Yoakum said. "I probably had the league's best defender on me pound for pound in Devon Robinson. He's a great player. I figured nothing was going to be easy for (Sunday) and I figured I'd get my teammates more involved and set more screens. It was a good run for us."
Pat Robinson gave the Hilltoppers a 15-point lead as he started the second half with five quick points. He also made a 3-pointer to give West Liberty its largest lead of the second half as the score read 53-37 with 12:13 remaining.
However, the Golden Eagles had more fight in them. Seth O'Neal hit four 3-pointers in a span of about four minutes, to cut the Charleston deficit to nine, 60-51. The Hilltoppers, though, denied any comeback belief.
Pat Robinson put the Hilltoppers lead back to double digits while Moore followed with a bucket of his own.
After a pair of O'Neal free throws to put the score at 66-57 with 2:56 left, West Liberty scored seven consecutive points capped by a Dalton Bolon, the Mountain East Conference Player of the Year, layup.
Pat Robinson finished with 21 points, went 8 of 14 from the floor and was named to the All-MEC Tournament team.
"I came here because I wanted to win," Robinson said. "Individually, I could go to plenty schools, score points and get accolades. But, ultimately, I want to win and Coach Howlett told me that. I came here and we're going to win and that's what we did. So, it's exactly what I expected."
For the Golden Eagles, O'Neal tallied a team-high 22 points while Drew Rackley had 14. Devon Robinson pulled down 14 rebounds.
Devon Robinson and Rackley also were named to the all-tournament team along with Concord's Trey Brisco, Fairmont State's Dale Bonner and West Virginia State's Glen Abram and Anthony Pittman.
Devon Robinson was also awarded the Heart & Hustle award.
West Liberty and Charleston will both move on to the NCAA tournament. West Liberty, a No. 2 seed will co-host the Atlantic Region with top-seeded Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Charleston is on the Hilltoppers side of the bracket as the No. 3 seed.