ELKINS, W.Va. - The No. 5 ranked West Liberty men's basketball team continued its roll to start the season with a 101-64 beat down of Davis and Elkins today on the road.
Bryce Butler opened the scoring with a three pointer and the Hilltoppers never trailed on way to its seventh straight win to start the year.
The Senators (6-2, 2-2) hung around for the first 12 minutes keeping it at a 10-point or less margin. West Liberty stretched it up to a 14-point lead late in the first half, but Davis & Elkins kept it under control sending the game to the break with WLU ahead 48-37.
The Hilltoppers never let the game get back within single digits in the second half, steamrolling D&E 53-27 in the final 20 minutes. A Zach Rasile three pointer extended the advantage to 20 for the first time in the game with just under 12 minutes to play. The lead got over 30 off a 9-0 run started by a Steve Cannady slam dunk out of the media timeout and capped off by an Alek West lay-in after a Malik McKinney steal at the 5:43 mark. West Liberty scored the final seven points of the game, five of which by McKinney, making the final score its largest lead of the game, at 37 points.
Butler led five players in double digits for the Black and Gold with 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting. McKinney ended with 14 and went a perfect 7-for-7 from the charity stripe. Rasile netted a game-high three triples finishing with 13 points. Steve Cannady and Ben Sarson rounded out the double figure 'Toppers with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
West Liberty owned a slight rebounding advantage, including a 13-10 edge on the offensive glass. Michael Sampson pulled down seven to lead all players and Chaz Hinds had six with half of them on the offensive end.
The Hilltoppers ended the game shooting 50.7% from the field, their second time this season above the 50% mark. They assisted on 27 of their 36 made field goals, which featured 12 three pointers, and only made eight turnovers. McKinney and West dished out five assists each.
Defensively, WLU held D&E to just one three pointer on 13 attempts and forced 18 turnovers, converting them into 29 points.
West Liberty will be back on the road on Wednesday night at Charleston. Tip off is scheduled for 7:30 pm.