BRIDGEPORT — After rolling to its fifth consecutive Mountain East Conference championship, the No. 2-ranked West Liberty University men’s basketball team fared very well on Tuesday when the league coaches revealed their 2022 All-MEC Team.

Ben Howlett was voted 2022 MEC Coach of the Year while sophomore guard Bryce Butler was the 2022 MEC Player of the Year Award and junior guard Pat Robinson III earned first-team All-MEC honors for the second straight season.

Senior forward Marlon Moore Jr. rounded out the WLU selections as an Honorable Mention pick.

It’s the second MEC Coach of the Year Award for Howlett, who is now in his fifth season at the helm of his alma mater. The former All-Region guard has proven to be just as adept on the sidelines as he was on the court.

His 125-20 (.862) career record gives him the highest career winning percentage of any NCAA men’s coach with 5 or more seasons on the bench.

Butler, a 6-5 third-year sophomore from Latrobe, Pa., exploded onto the MEC scene this winter in his first full season as a starter. The second-leading scorer (18.6 ppg.) and leading rebounder (7.3 rpg.) on the nation’s highest-scoring team, Butler ranks 9th in the country with 222 made field goals and is 10th in field-goal percentage (222-of-347, .640).

He has scored double-figures in 27 of 28 games with a team-high 8 double-doubles. A 1.000-point scorer, Butler posted season- and career-highs of 30 points at Fairmont State, 13 rebounds vs. W.Va. State and 9 assists at Glenville State.

Robinson, a silky-smooth 6-3 southpaw guard from Chesterfield, N.J., leads the Hilltoppers in scoring (20.1 ppg.) and steals (63) while shooting better than 50 percent (205-of-402) from the floor and nearly 80 percent (121-of-157, .771) from the charity stripe. A Holy Family, Pa. transfer, he’s scored over 2,000 points in his collegiate career with nearly 1,600 of them coming in Black and Gold. He has reached double-figures in every game this season with 15 20-point games. He’s posted season-highs of 30 points vs. East Stroudsburg, 8 rebounds at Concord and 7 assists at Alderson Broaddus.

Moore, a sky-walking 6-5 senior forward from Cleveland, Ohio, averages 9.6 points and 5.1 rebounds a game as one of the premier “sixth men” in the Atlantic Region. Just seven points away from the 1,000-point career milestone, Moore has also collected more than 600 rebounds during his time at WLU. He’s had 14 double-figure scoring games this season and posted a season-high 18 points on three occasions – most notably during a 110-107 late-season overtime win at No. 16 Fairmont State. He also grabbed a West Liberty season-high 15 rebounds against Concord and had a double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds) in a win at regionally-ranked Pitt-Johnstown.

Joining Butler and Robinson on the first-team unit is the West Virginia State tandem of Glen Abram and Anthony Pittman along with Fairmont State’s Isaiah Sanders, Glenville State’s John Williams, Charleston’s Keith Williams and Jaedon Willis from Notre Dame (Ohio). Alderson Broaddus’ Jalen Knott was voted MEC Freshman of the Year.

Two members of the Wheeling University Men’s Basketball team were honored. Senior Jarett Haines and Graduate Student Jordan Reid each made the list earning All-MEC Second Team awards for their efforts. It is the first time that Wheeling has had multiple All-MEC honorees since they had three All-MEC honorees back during the 2017-2018 season.

Haines and Reid were both big parts of the Wheeling offense, helping to lead the team to a 9-19 record and an 8-14 record in conference play that gave Wheeling the No. 9 seed. Both players rank in the top 10 of the conference in scoring, averaging 18.3 and 20.3 points respectively, and both reached the 1,000-point milestone in their careers this season. For Reid, it is the third straight season where he has been recognized as an All-MEC Second team award winner, while Haines is bringing home his first career All-MEC honor.

Haines began the year as Wheeling’s leading scorer and finished 10th in the Mountain East Conference averaging 18.3 points per game. Haines leads Wheeling in assists (77) this season while playing the most time on the court with 889 minutes played. He shot 45.8% from the floor during the season and eclipsed the 30-point mark in a game twice this season. His best performance came on the road against Glenville State when he scored 35 points in what was a 96-90 loss in Glenville, West Virginia. It is Haines’s first appearance on the All-MEC list as he wraps up a strong career at Wheeling.

Reid continued his success with the Cardinals and lands on the All-MEC Second Team list for the third season in a row. He finished fifth in the conference in scoring, averaging 20.3 points per game, and was top 20 in the conference in rebounding. Reid also ranked fifth in the conference in free throw percentage, shooting 85% from the charity stripe. Reid was also named All-MEC Second team in 2020 and 2021 as he adds a third honor to his list of recognitions.