A few days before Saturday's game versus No. 8 West Liberty, West Virginia State coach Bryan Poore said it wasn't wise to get into a shooting contest with the Hilltoppers, who led the Mountain East and ranked 10th in Division II in field goal percentage.
The Yellow Jackets did their best in Saturday's second half to tarnish West Liberty's sharpshooting reputation, but it wasn't enough to pull off the upset. The Hilltoppers used 16 3-pointers to vanquish WVSU, 97-79, at the Walker Convocation Center.
Frank Webb led West Virginia State (5-14, 3-11 Mountain East) with 24 points, but the Hilltoppers (18-2, 12-2 MEC) got 28 points from Devin Hoehn, who made 8 of 11 from 3-point range.
At one point in the second half, West Liberty had made an uncharacteristic 6 of 22 shots from the floor and 2 of 11 from 3-point range. That helped the Yellow Jackets to cut what was a 22-point lead near the start of the second half, to a 70-62 advantage with 9:45 to go.
Poore said some of that came from a change in defensive strategy.
"When we started out, our goal was to play as much zone as we could," Poore said, "because that cuts down on their movement. But then they kept driving into the zone and kicking out to Hoehn in the corner and that's where he was getting his 3s. So then we just went to switching everything except the point guard, and that caused them a little bit of a problem."
West Liberty steadied itself after that, making 5 of its next 7 shots, then extending the lead to as many as 23 with 2:16 left. The Hilltoppers finished the game shooting 33 of 71 from the floor (46.5 percent), a couple of points under its season shooting average of 49.9 percent.
Hilltoppers coach Jim Crutchfield would have liked for his team to put the final result out of question after Mike Lamberti's layup with 18:06 left gave WLU a 62-40 lead. But he credited the Yellow Jackets for not giving up the fight.
"That's when you're hoping you can push the pedal and finish the game early," Crutchfield said. "But State hung in there and stayed tough. They made some big shots on one end and we had the right guys shooting the ball. But you still have to play your best basketball and work as hard as you can for your next shot."
The Hilltoppers stayed true to form in jumping out to a 9-0 lead at the game's start. West Liberty was perfect from beyond the arc in that streak, with Lamberti, Zac Grossenbacher and Hoehn all hitting 3-pointers. The Yellow Jackets were able to climb back into the game, tying the score twice and trailing just 19-18 with 12:32 left in the first half, after Frank Webb hit a pair of free throws.
But West Liberty went on another run, this time a 15-3 streak over 3 minutes, 19 seconds that extended the Hilltoppers' lead to 34-21. For the rest of the half, the Yellow Jackets tried keeping WLU's lead in the single digits. West Liberty led by as many as 16 in the first half, and Hoehn's 3-pointer at the buzzer gave the Hilltoppers a 51-38 halftime advantage.
West Liberty made 12 3-pointers in Saturday's first half. West Virginia State made 13 total field goals in the same span.
"If we don't shoot the ball well, we're definitely not winning the game at that point," Crutchfield said. "I really understood that, in the first half, we were fortunate to be where we were on the scoreboard."
West Liberty's Seger Bonifant, the MEC's leading scorer at 24.2 points per game, finished Saturday's contest with 16, scoring just two in the first half while saddled with three fouls. He wasn't whistled for a foul in the second half.
Markee Mazyck scored 14 points for the Yellow Jackets and Tyrie Elliott added 12 points by going 4 of 9 from 3-point range. The Yellow Jackets continue their home stand at 7:30 p.m. Thursday against Urbana.
At this point in the season, with State having lost five straight and 10 of its last 11 games, Poore said the mission is to improve each day whether in games or at practice to get ready for the conference tournament. He saw some bright spots Saturday, especially in how the Yellow Jackets played defense and rebounded and how Cody Morris, who finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds, became more of a physical post presence.
"Where we are right now, that's all we can hang our hat on, is get better today, get better tomorrow and get better the next day," Poore said. "And hopefully we can get a little momentum going with a month left and see what happens."