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BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. – After rolling to its fifth consecutive Mountain East Conference championship, the No. 2-ranked West Liberty University men’s basketball team fared very well on Tuesday when the league coaches revealed their 2022 All-MEC Team.
Ben Howlett was voted 2022 MEC Coach of the Year while sophomore guard Bryce Butler was the 2022 MEC Player of the Year Award and junior guard Pat Robinson III earned first-team All-MEC honors for the second straight season. Senior forward Marlon Moore Jr. rounded out the WLU selections as an Honorable Mention pick.
It’s the second MEC Coach of the Year Award for Howlett, who is now in his fifth season at the helm of his alma mater. The former All-Region guard has proven to be just as adept on the sidelines as he was on the court. His 125-20 (.862) career record gives him the highest career winning percentage of any NCAA men’s coach with 5 or more seasons on the bench.
Butler, a 6-5 third-year sophomore from Latrobe, Pa., exploded onto the MEC scene this winter in his first full season as a starter. The second-leading scorer (18.6 ppg.) and leading rebounder (7.3 rpg.) on the nation’s highest-scoring team, Butler ranks 9th in the country with 222 made field goals and is 10th in field-goal percentage (222-of-347, .640). He has scored double-figures in 27 of 28 games with a team-high 8 double-doubles. A 1.000-point scorer, Butler posted season- and career-highs of 30 points at Fairmont State, 13 rebounds vs. W.Va. State and 9 assists at Glenville State.
Robinson, a silky-smooth 6-3 southpaw guard from Chesterfield, N.J., leads the Hilltoppers in scoring (20.1 ppg.) and steals (63) while shooting better than 50 percent (205-of-402) from the floor and nearly 80 percent (121-of-157, .771) from the charity stripe. A Holy Family, Pa. transfer, he's scored over 2,000 points in his collegiate career with nearly 1,600 of them coming in Black and Gold. He has reached double-figures in every game this season with 15 20-point games. He's posted season-highs of 30 points vs. East Stroudsburg, 8 rebounds at Concord and 7 assists at Alderson Broaddus.
Moore, a sky-walking 6-5 senior forward from Cleveland, Ohio, averages 9.6 points and 5.1 rebounds a game as one of the premier “sixth men” in the Atlantic Region. Just seven points away from the 1,000-point career milestone, Moore has also collected more than 600 rebounds during his time at WLU. He's had 14 double-figure scoring games this season and posted a season-high 18 points on three occasions – most notably during a 110-107 late-season overtime win at No. 16 Fairmont State. He also grabbed a West Liberty season-high 15 rebounds against Concord and had a double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds) in a win at regionally-ranked Pitt-Johnstown.
Joining Butler and Robinson on the first-team unit is the West Virginia State tandem of Glen Abram and Anthony Pittman along with Fairmont State’s Isaiah Sanders, Glenville State’s John Williams, Charleston’s Keith Williams and Jaedon Willis from Notre Dame (Ohio). Alderson Broaddus’ Jalen Knott was voted MEC Freshman of the Year.
After receiving a first-round bye as the No. 1 seed, the Hilltoppers won hit the WesBanco Arena floor until Friday night when they meet the winner of Wednesday's first-round matchup between No. 8 Glenville State (12-15) and No. 9 Wheeling (9-19) in a 6 p.m. quarterfinal.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
2022 All-Mountain East Conference Team
Player of the Year: BRYCE BUTLER (WEST LIBERTY)
Freshman of the Year: Jalen Knott (Alderson Broaddus)
Coach of the Year: BEN HOWLETT, WEST LIBERTY
FIRST TEAM
Name School Cl. Pos. Ht. Hometown
Glen Abram W.Va. State Gr. G 6-1 Chicago, Ill.
BRYCE BUTLER WEST LIBERTY SO. G 6-5 LATROBE, PA.
Anthony Pittman W.Va. State Jr. F 6-5 Charleston, W.Va.
PAT ROBINSON III WEST LIBERTY SR. G 6-3 CHESTERFIELD, N.J.
Isaiah Sanders Fairmont State Sr. G 6-5 Sicklerville, N.J.
John Williams Glenville State Sr. G 6-5 Augusta, Ga.
Keith Williams Charleston Sr. G 6-2 Sandusky, Ohio
Jaedon Willis Notre Dame Jr. G 6-0 Baltimore, Md.
SECOND TEAM
Name School Cl. Pos. Ht. Hometown
Zyon Dobbs Fairmont State Jr. G 6-4 Fairmont W.Va.
Jarett Haines Wheeling Sr. G 5-11 Bronx, N.Y.
Lamont McManus Charleston Sr. C 6-6 Waldorf, Md.
Jeremiah Moore W.Va. State Gr. F 6-6 West Orange, N.Y.
Jordan Reid Wheeling Gr. G 6-1 Silver Spring, Md.
Sam Rolle Davis & Elkins So. G 5-11 Riviera Beach, Fla.
Cole VonHandorf Fairmont State Gr. G 6-2 Covington, Ky.
KJ Walker Alderson Broaddus Sr. G 5-10 Reynoldsburg, Ohio
Matt Weir Concord Sr. G 6-0 Nashport, Ohio
HONORABLE MENTION
Name School Cl. Pos. Ht. Hometown
Eddie Colbert Charleston Jr. G/F 6-6 Toledo, Ohio
Agyei Edwards Frostburg State Jr. G 5-11 Washington, D.C.
Jayden Hibbitt W.Va. Wesleyan So. G/F 6-6 Woodbridge, Va.
MARLON MOORE JR. WEST LIBERTY SR. F 6-5 CLEVELAND, OHIO
Adrian Scarborough Glenville State Sr. F 6-3 Raleigh, N.C.