Even in a conference like the Mountain East, full of teams that have been able to score seemingly at will all season long, West Liberty is a special case.
The No. 3 Hilltoppers have become notorious for their high-flying, fast style of basketball that scores in bunches and does it as well as any school in the country. There's a certain strategy teams have to take when getting ready to go up against schools like that, and it's a task that Charleston coach Dwaine Osborne believes his group is up for as West Liberty comes into town for Thursday's 7:30 p.m. game against the Golden Eagles.
"There's always the discussion about how you deal with teams like West Liberty where they want to play fast and have as many possessions as possible," Osborne said. "They're fine with giving up shots, they aren't worried about it if they can get you to try to play at their pace.
"They practice that pace and you're not used to it, so you wear down faster. I've come from the approach of trying to control the pace to get them to play our game."
Charleston had some success doing that a year ago, holding the Hilltoppers to nearly 15 points per game below their season average in the two meetings between the schools. In the first game this season, Charleston fell to West Liberty 94-62, struggling at times to limit what the Hilltoppers tried to do offensively. The Golden Eagles (10-8, 4-8 MEC) is still trying to get back on track after dropping seven of their last eight games. Meanwhile, West Liberty (17-1, 11-1) has won its last 10 games by an average margin of 19.9 points.
Justin Coleman and Elliott Cole have led the way for UC this season. Coleman is one of three players in the Mountain East averaging a double-double with 11.6 points and 10.4 rebounds per game, while Cole is sixth in the league in scoring at 17.4 points per game.
A big key, Osborne said, will be for his group to find a way to start strong against the Hilltoppers.
"What has been a theme for us is that we've been a team that starts very slow," Osborne said. "But when you play teams like West Liberty, you get down 10 or 12 points against them, it's really hard to make it a game again. They're hard to come back on because they score so efficiently."
While UC will host one of the nation's top teams, West Virginia State will look to try to keep its momentum rolling by hitting the road against No. 9 Wheeling Jesuit for a 7:30 p.m. Thursday game.
In the earlier meeting between the schools, the Yellow Jackets (6-12, 3-9 MEC) had chances late but ultimately fell at home by 10 points to the Cardinals (16-2, 10-2).
WVSU snapped a seven-game losing streak with Saturday's win over Concord, injecting the team with some much-needed confidence after struggling throughout much of January.
"I told them after we lost to UC last week that old saying about how if you fall down seven times, you have to get up eight. I'm proud of how this group has kept fighting all year," West Virginia State coach Bryan Poore said. "These kids deserved a win and it was good to see them get one, and now we can try to keep moving forward because they needed that to get some of that confidence back."
The Yellow Jackets will likely have to play once again without Brent Bauer, who suffered an ankle injury against Charleston and missed the Concord game. The sophomore point guard was averaging 12.7 points and 4.4 assists before getting injured.
In his place, Tyrie Elliott jumped into the lineup and scored 15 points while Ernest Jenkins moved over to point guard and had a career-high eight assists while continuing his stretch of 15 consecutive games scoring in double figures.
"We're trying to ease our way out of the bottom of the conference and move up, so we hope we can keep it going," Jenkins said. "We just want to be playing our best basketball here late in the season so we can try to surprise some people. We have some guys that can be pretty dangerous if we get hot."
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.