Toppers fall in tourney

INDIANA, Pa. - The deadly outside shooting touch that had carried the West Liberty University men's basketball team to a Top 10 national ranking deserted the Hilltoppers at the worst possible time Tuesday night.

West Liberty shot just 22 percent from behind the 3-point arc and was held to a season-low 72 points as No. 2 Indiana (Pa.) muscled out an 84-72 victory before a sold-out home crowd in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region championship game.

"Player for player, that's the most talented team we've played," Hilltopper head coach Jim Crutchfield said afterwards. "They have great size, they hit the boards hard and they handled our pressure pretty well.

"In order to beat a team like that, we knew we were going to have to shoot the ball extremely well. We made some big shots tonight to stay in the game but we also missed a lot of shots we normally make."

The Crimson Hawks (31-2) seemed ready to blow West Liberty (29-3) out of the gym from the opening tap.

Indiana held the Hilltoppers to just one field goal in the first 6:30 while storming out to a 13-3 lead.

West Liberty senior Scott Mirich came off the bench to spark an answering 17-7 surge, knotting the score for the first time, 20-20, with a driving layup at the 8:26 mark.

Four straight free throws by Mirich and Corey Pelle gave the Hilltoppers their only lead of the game, 33-32, at 2:27 of the opening half but IUP bounced back to carry a 39-35 lead into intermission.

Barry Shetzer pulled the visitors within a point, 39-38, when he opened the second half with a 3-pointer and the teams traded baskets for the next few minutes before the Crimson Hawks delivered what proved to be the knockout punch.

Fueled by 3-pointers from Boston College transfer Akida McLain and long-range marksman Julian Sanders, IUP reeled off 12 unanswered points over a 2:20 span.

Tournament MVP Darryl Webb capped the surge with a thunderous dunk that brought the partisan crowd to its feet and dropped West Liberty into a 56-42 hole with 13:42 remaining.

The Hilltoppers hadn't come this far to fold their tents and Crutchfield's crew battled its way back into contention.

Another Shetzer 3-pointer with 9:09 remaining pulled West Liberty within four points, 62-58.

After Webb made 1-of-2 free throws at the other end, the Hilltoppers hustled back downcourt and got two wide-open 3-point shots from two of their best shooters.

Both attempts spun around and out and IUP countered quickly with a 3-pointer from Kevin Stewart that spun around the iron, popped out and bounced back in off the glass.

"That possession is still running through my mind," Crutchfield said. "We had some momentum and got two clean looks at 3s. Those are the shots that started all runs all season but they just weren't dropping tonight."

West Liberty never got within six points the rest of the way.

Pelle led a balanced Hilltopper attack with 23 points while John Wolosinczuk battled his way to 17 points and 7 rebounds against the imposing IUP front line. Mirich and Shetzer finished with 13 and 11 points, respectively.

Webb led Indiana with 27 points and 12 rebounds while Sanders and McLain weighed in with 17 and 16 points, respectively.

The Crimson Hawks are headed for the Elite Eight in Springfield, Mass. later this month but the Hilltoppers have plenty of memories to last through the offseason.

"My expectations are always very high," Crutchfield said, "but in all honesty, this team exceeded them.

"We had to replace two of the top 10 scorers in school history but we had 29 wins, won the school's first conference championship in nearly 50 years and were 40 minutes away from going to Springfield for the national tournament.

"It really hurts now but at some point, we're all going to look back and realize that this was a special bunch of kids doing some very special things."