CHARLESTON, W.Va. - If there was some kind of West Virginia Conference changing of the guard ceremony scheduled for Eddie King Gym on Thursday night, West Liberty certainly didn't get the memo.

The defending league-champion Hilltoppers didn't show up with any torch to pass and in fact did the torching themselves, lighting up the nets, Charleston's defense, and the scoreboard en route to a 100-83 win over the previously unbeaten Golden Eagles.
The game was an early preview of what could be a conference championship showdown at the end of the year and if nothing else, the Golden Eagles and coach Mark Downey learned they have a long way to go.

"They play the way I want my kids to play," Downey said. "They made us look bad. On some possessions, I was embarrassed. Our guys aren't there yet. Just a lot of new guys - we don't know each other, we're not mature enough to handle some of these situations."

The game promised to be one of the best early season matchups in the conference as the teams entered with the Hilltoppers No. 1 and UC No. 3 in the WVC in scoring offense, while the Eagles were first and West Liberty second in rebounding.

But West Liberty, who made it all the way to the Division II Final Four last season, put on a clinic for what team basketball should be.

The Hilltoppers had 21 assists against only 10 turnovers while forcing 17 turnovers from UC. West Liberty helped on defense, shared the ball, made great decisions with the ball, hit open shots and cashed in at the free throw line.

"They just bury you," Downey said. "They do such a good job of their returning guys bringing in their new guys and making them live up to a standard. That's where we want to get with our program. Our new guys coming in, our returners need to make them live up to what we want and that's a process. We are talented, we could do some things, but we have a long way to go."

West Liberty coach Jim Crutchfield had seen his team struggle a bit in the early part of the season, dropping an overtime game to Findlay and eking out an overtime win against Fairmont State.

He admitted his squad put together a solid effort on Thursday.

"We played a really good basketball game tonight," Crutchfield said. "Offensively, we've had some games where we've struggled about making decisions but tonight we made great decisions. We played as a team, moved the ball well, guys spread the court well, spacing was good, and we got high-percentage shots. That's how you have to win basketball games and it was a really good time for all that to come together down here."

The turning point came on a play that usually would have indicated good things to come for Charleston.

Often times when a coach is called for a technical, his team is inspired and goes on a run. Unfortunately for the Golden Eagles, the opposite occurred as the Hilltoppers immediately went on a 14-0 run after Downey was T'd up in the first half for arguing with an official.

The 14-0 spurt came in the midst of a 21-4 run for West Liberty that led to a 13-point halftime advantage. The deficit didn't get any lower than seven after that.

The West Liberty defense just wouldn't let up and the Hilltoppers controlled what had been a potent UC attack, limiting the Golden Eagles to just 5-for-21 shooting behind the 3-point arc.

Foul shooting contributed greatly to UC's woes as well as the Golden Eagles connected on 16-of-28 free throws and the Hilltoppers were true on 17-of-18 attempts.

Cedric Harris was a thorn in Charleston's side all night, going for 22 points and eight assists. Harris entered the game No. 8 in the WVC in scoring, averaging 19.7 points per game while UC's P.J. Reyes was third at 22.5. But Harris got the better of the matchup on Thursday, scoring a game-high 22 points, and Reyes was limited to 13.

"He is certainly starting to become a West Liberty basketball player because he's becoming very comfortable with his teammates and you can see that," Crutchfield said. "For the short time he's been here, I've been really impressed by how he looks like he has played with these guys for a long time."

Shawn Dyer had 17 points and five assists for the Hilltoppers (6-1 overall, 4-0 WVC) followed by C.J. Hester with 16 points, Chris Morrow 13, Alex Falk 12 and Tim Hausfield 11.

Marco Richardson paced UC (6-1, 2-1) with 19 points, followed by Noah Fischer (12), Eladio Espinosa (11) and Evan Faulkner and Philip Outley (10 each).

Charleston plays at Alderson-Broaddus at 7:30 Saturday night.