Photo Provided by West Liberty Athletics West Liberty’s Malik McKinney goes in for a layup during the Hilltoppers’ Elite Eight quarterfinal machup against Northwest Missouri State. The Bearcats defeated the Hilltoppers, 98-77.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — For its Division II Elite Eight quarterfinal matchup against Northwest Missouri State, West Liberty coach Ben Howlett knew how disciplined the Bearcats were.

And the reigning NCAA Division II national champions certainly showed why they’ve won two titles since 2017.

The Bearcats shot a blistering 61.8% from the floor and led by as many as 30 to secure a 98-77 victory over the Hilltoppers Wednesday night at the Ford Center.

The Bearcats will face off against Flagler in the semifinals.

“There’s a reason they’re defending national champions and there’s a reason they only lost three games in three years. They’re really good,” Howlett said.

“I don’t think film does justice for them. Hats off to those guys. I think when you play a team like Northwest Missouri you have to have a couple things go your way. One of the things we talked about is we had to shoot the ball well. We were 44% from the floor. That’s not good enough.

“You also have to control the rebound and we lost the rebounding war. You’re not going to win when you play this elite of team with those type of numbers.”

West Liberty and Northwest Missouri State were neck-and-neck for the first 13 minutes of the contest. The Hilltoppers tallied a four-point lead on a Dalton Bolon 3-pointer as the score read 8-4 with 17:24 remaining.

After a pair of Pat Robinson free throws that made it 12-8 the Bearcats went on an 11-0 run and never trailed again.

Another pair of Robinson free throws put the score at 25-19 with 7:13 remaining, but Northwest Missouri State went on a small 7-0 spurt to go up by double digits for the remainder of the game.

“I think the press helped a lot,” Bearcats coach Ben McCollum said.

“When you press a team with a couple of point guards, it helps and they were able to handle it a little bit.

“I thought to start we were a little bit shell-shocked and once we calmed down, we were able to get them in rotation, we were able to get them in rotation, get kick-out 3s, and open layups in transition.

“I was proud of our kids’ effort. Now we’re on to the next.”

Ryan Hawkins led the way for the Bearcats with 32 points going 11 of 14 from the floor and 6 of 8 from behind the 3-point arc. Trevor Hudgins also was solid with a 23-point effort while Diego Bernard had 14 and Luke Water netted 13. Byron Alexander rounded out the double digit scorers for Northwest Missouri State with 11 points.

Robinson led the way for the Hilltoppers with 20 points.

“He’s one of the best guards in the country,” Howlett said. “His ability to score is really high. At times, it felt like our best offense was when we ran him off a ball screen and when we did that, we had some success. He’s a great player and I’m lucky to have him back for at least one more year.”

The Bearcats took their largest lead of the game after a Hawkins 3-pointer to put the score at 74-44 with 14:18 remaining. While the Hilltoppers tried to chip away at the lead, the Bearcats answered them as West Liberty cut it to 23 on many occasions, but couldn’t get any closer until the final minute where Bryce Butler put in the final basket of the game as the score read, 98-77.

Bolon netted 15 points for West Liberty while Butler chipped in 11. Ben Sarson, Marlon Moore Jr. and Luke Dyer all had eight points.

“I thought our guys played really hard. I didn’t think we played smart at times, but hopefully we have another crack at this next year,” Howlett said. “We were one of eight teams remaining, obviously not our best brand of basketball we put on the floor (Wednesday), but our guys never quit.”