After battling to a close victory against No. 8 Davis & Elkins in the quarterfinals Friday, the top-seeded Hilltoppers needed two overtime periods to put away No. 5 Glenville State, 105-100 in double OT on Saturday inside WesBanco Arena.

West Liberty now advances to the MEC Championship game for the eight straight season. They will face No. 2 Fairmont State in a rematch of last year’s championship game, with tipoff set for 4 p.m.. The Hilltoppers last claimed the conference crown in 2023.

When it came to Saturday, two shots stood out: a game-tying catch-and-shoot 3-pointer by West Liberty’s Myles Montgomery from the wing with 30 seconds left in regulation– the two teams headed to the first overtime period tied 77-77– and a game-tying corner 3-pointer at the buzzer of the first overtime period by Glenville State’s Corey Boulden, which sent the two teams to a second overtime tied 94-94.

Montgomery finished with a team-high 24 points, and pilfered five steals.

“When Coach called the play, I kind of knew where I was going,” Montgomery said of his game-tying 3-pointer. “I had a feeling I was going to get an open look and I just knew I’d have confidence whenever I shot it. And as soon as I shot it, it felt good out of my hands and I’m just happy my teammates were able to give me the ball and get me open. I couldn’t have made that shot without the screen. Just really happy it went in.”

Boulden’s game-tying three was a surreal shot– with eight seconds left in the first overtime, West Liberty missed the back end of a pair of free throws to sit ahead by three points. Glenville State had no timeouts left, and pushed the ball up the court furiously with no time to run any kind of play. One pass to Boulden in the corner, and the deciding shot just went up before the buzzer– and found the bottom of the net, to an eruption from the WesBanco Arena crowd; half in jubilation, and half in disbelief.

While the 3-pointer could have made for a major momentum shift, West Liberty head coach Michael Lamberti said his team remained focused even after the improbable shot.

“I think that when those type of moments happen– you can even go back to the end of regulation when we got a great look to win the basketball game and that doesn’t go in, and a couple guys put their head down. Next play. We say that over and over and over again […]”

“We missed a free throw, they make a shot at the buzzer. It’s like, wow, nothing is going our way to end this game, right? Our attitude was, they’re getting more tired than us. We’ve been in these situations all the time. Let’s go take them in the second overtime. We can play more basketball, who’s going to complain about that? So proud of these guys. They kept their heads up. Next play mentality is a big motto of our team and they did that.”

West Liberty held advantages in several key categories– the Hilltoppers grabbed 23 offensive rebounds, won the turnover margin 28-16, and scored 46 points in the paint against Glenville’s 30, but perhaps the most glaring difference as the game went on was the production that West Liberty got from their bench. The Hilltoppers bench scored 40 points while Glenville State’s scored 19 points.

Coming into Saturday, West Liberty thought they were the deeper team, and that mattered quite a bit in the double-overtime contest. Glenville State saw Don Colon-Lewis foul out in overtime, Jalen Knott foul out in the first overtime, and Elijah Redfern, Ammar Maxwell and Corey Boulden foul out in the second overtime. The Pioneers mustered only six points in the second overtime period.

“We talked about it. They’re pretty top-heavy,” Cameron Williams, who finished with 21 points, five assists and six rebounds, said of Glenville State. “Their top guys can go. So when we were able to foul out Knott and then eventually Redfern, it was big because it makes it a lot easier on us on defense. I mean, those guys can really play.”

“Glenville is really dang good, and a point of emphasis is they have two of the best guards that I think are in the league between Jalen Knott and Elijah Redfern,” Lamberti said. “And they put on a show for everybody. Prince Mosengo, also an animal on the inside. And we talked about, they don’t have much depth and they play high minutes with most of their guys and we’re going to play nine, 10, 11 guys. If we can keep the pressure on and play our style of play of transition offense, full-court pressure defense, eventually they’re going to break.”

Knott scored 26 for Glenville, Redfern 19 and Mosengo 26 with 11 rebounds.

Besides Montgomery and Williams’ big days, Jamie Muldowney scored 20 points with nine rebounds, while Dante Spadafora and Hayden Abdullah each scored 12.