For close to 39 minutes of Sunday's Mountain East Conference tournament championship game, West Liberty had been playing from behind.
But the second-seeded Hilltoppers finally got ahead and closed out the game when it mattered most to earn their first-ever MEC tournament title with a 67-65 win over No. 1 Fairmont State.
"Someone said the word resilience today, and I think that describes how we played," West Liberty coach Jim Crutchfield said. "We were hanging in there and hanging in there. I told them at halftime that we were going to win, and we got down 10 and I told them we were still going to win.
"That's kind of what we do. We've won a lot of games this year. Both teams struggled to shoot it real well, and a few bounces here and there can make a difference."
In a game between two teams that average more than 98 points per game, it may have come as a surprise to some that the deciding factor of the championship game would come down to who could find a way to make shots in a game where both teams struggled to find their usual high-powered offensive success.
In the win, the Hilltoppers (28-3, 20-3 Mountain East) committed 17 turnovers - the most it has committed in a game all season - and shot just 21.4 percent from 3-point range.
And for Fairmont State, after a D.J. Stockman 3-pointer gave the Falcons an 8-point lead with 5:14 to play, the Falcons went cold. They scored just one point the rest of the way - missing all six shot attempts from the field, just one of six free throw attempts that gave them the chance to tie the game or take the lead, and committed three turnovers.
That helped to pave the way for freshman Clay Guillozet to hit a 3-pointer to tie the game 64-64 with 3:07 to play and then David Dennis made three foul shots to help seal the victory.
"It was frustrating because usually we can get teams down 10 or 11 points and try to take it out to 18 or 20," Fairmont State coach Jerrod Calhoun said. "Unfortunately we just couldn't do that tonight. We scored 65 points tonight - we had 35 at halftime and I thought there was no way we'd go another half [like that]. You've got to give them credit, they really guarded."
Fairmont State (29-2, 21-2 Mountain East) led by as many as 12 points in the second half. But immediately after the Falcons pulled ahead by that margin, the Hilltoppers found their footing for their first run of the half.
West Liberty held Fairmont State scoreless for the next four minutes, going on an 8-0 run that made it a four-point game and gave the Hilltoppers the new life they had been looking for since falling behind early.
"We've been in that situation plenty of times and Coach just tells us to keep our heads down and keep moving," West Liberty guard Devin Hoehn said. "That's what we do - just keep up the pressure and know that eventually we'll catch back up."
Dennis led the way for West Liberty, making several big shots thorughout the game en route to a game-high 23 points and nine rebounds. Hoehn, who was named the tournament MVP, followed him with 18 points while Dan Monteroso scored 10 in the win.
Matt Bingaya led the Falcons with 18 points. Thomas Wimbush scored 17 while D.J. Stockman and Vonte Montgomery added 11 and 10, respectively.
Dennis, Hoehn and Monteroso represented the Hilltoppers on the all-tournament team, and they were joined by Bingaya, Wimbush and Montgomery. Shepherd's A.J. Carr and Wheeling Jesuit's Haywood Highsmith rounded out the group. Charleston senior guard Elliott Cole took home the award for highest scoring average in the tournament - averaging 26.5 points per game in two games for the Golden Eagles.
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.