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West Liberty 95, Glenville State 92 | Final Stats
WHEELING, W.Va. -- Glenville State's improbable comeback hopes were dashed at the buzzer as Malik McKinney connected from three to send West Liberty into the MEC Tournament finals with a 95-92 win over the Pioneers.

West Liberty saw a 15-point lead evaporate over the final three minutes as Glenville State drained seven three-pointers in the final three minutes, including five in the final 1:09, to eventually pull even at 92-92 with 4.1 seconds left. GSC's John Williams made four of those threes, and Zane Desouza made the game-tying shot from the corner.

West Liberty took the ball inbounds and Pat Robinson raced upcourt and found McKinney open on the left wing. McKinney has the presence of mind to pump fake, and then stepped into the game-winner as time expired. 

“Coach says when we have the ball late to hurry and get it up,” McKinney said. “They were pressing us and that's the best way to beat a press. Pat (Robinson) got it up the sideline and I didn't see anybody around me. I call his name and he was a good enough passer to make the pass. All I had to do was hit the shot.

“They told me we had four seconds or almost five so I felt like I had an eternity. I took a rhythm dribble and let it go.”

I want to give Glenville a lot of credit,” West Liberty head coach Ben Howlett said. “A lot of times when we have teams down double digits in the second half they'll crumble and fade away. They didn't. They just kept fighting and fighting.

“I thought a couple of those shots there late we had defended pretty well, but they were still able to make them. Luckily we were able to make the final shot. That's what March is all about. Survive and advance. We're looking forward to playing in the championship game.”

“Obviously we came up just a little bit short,” a disappointed Glenville coach Justin Caldwell said. “I told these guys all along I'll tell you I'm proud of you when we win a championship because I felt like from the first time I watched these guys play that we had potential to be able to do that. I lied. I'm proud of them. They fought. They were down 15 with five to go and 12 with less than three minutes or something like that, but they never gave up. They trusted each other and I couldn't be more proud of them right now.”

West Liberty was carried in the early going by MEC Player of the Year Dalton Bolon as he scored 22 of West Liberty's first 26 points. The Hilltoppers led by five at halftime but weren't able to pull away in the early portion of the second half. Glenville State got wo within one at 53-52 with 13:55 left, but West Liberty was able to push to its biggest lead of the night at 15 with 6:19 to go, and kept it there until the final three-minute stretch when the Pioneers staged the remarkable comeback. 

“We felt in that type of a game if we could get it to a two possession game with a minute or less that we'd have a chance,” Caldwell said. “When you're down 12 or so you can't just go twos and foul and twos and foul. We knew we had to hit some threes.

“They had their run and we had our run. We talked a lot about that. Whichever team had the last run was going to win it, but unfortunately it didn't work out that way. Hats off to them. They're a very, very good basketball team. They were 7-of-11 from three in the second half and when you don't miss it makes it very hard for us to win.”

West Liberty ended the game shooting 55 percent from the field, and 10-of-22 from three. The Hilltoppers were also 19-of-28 from the free throw line. 

Bolon finished the game with 32 points. Pat Robinson scored 18, and McKinney added 15.

John Williams and Hegel Augustin each scored 32 points for the Pioneers. Augustin had nine rebounds and Williams pulled down eight. Nick Edwards had 12 points and eight assists. 

West Liberty will be making its fifth appearance in the Mountain East Conference Tournament championship game. The Hilltoppers are 2-2 in title games. West Liberty won championships in 2020 and 2017 and lost in 2019 and 2014 and is seeking to become the first team to win back-to-back MEC Tournament titles. 

The victory was the 11th in a row for the Hilltoppers who improved to 15-3. Glenville State dropped to 9-4 with the loss.

Fairmont State 85, Charleston 70 | Final Stats
By Duane Cochran for Mountain East.org
WHEELING, W.Va. – During their only regular-season meeting 12th-ranked University of Charleston pretty much imposed its will on Fairmont State in an 85-70 win.

Saturday evening in the semifinals of the annual Mountain East Conference Tournament here at WesBanco Arena Fairmont State returned the favor.

The Falcons, led by Isaiah Sanders' career-high tying 31-point performance, snapped the Golden Eagles' 14-game winning streak with an impressive 84-69 victory.

“It was a great win against one of the best teams in the country,” second-year Fairmont coach Tim Koenig said. “Our guys played well defensively, rebounded the ball and for the most part took care of it. I'm really proud of the guys.”

The win improved Fairmont State to 14-4 on the year and puts the Falcons in Sunday's 4:30 p.m. MEC Tournament title game for the third time since the league formed in 2013-14.

Charleston, which hadn't lost since the first two games of the season back in early January, slipped to 14-3 with Saturday's loss.

Fairmont State never trailed in the contest which it dominated on both ends of the floor. The Falcons turned UC over 14 times and outscored the Golden Eagles in points off of turnovers, 23-6. Fairmont also held a 37-31 advantage on the glass and outscored UC 22-5 in fast break points.

“I think in the first game we were tougher and today I thought they were tougher,” veteran UC coach Dwaine Osborne said. “We talk about this a lot. When you get into big games, tournament play or postseason play usually the tougher team wins.

“We were just really out of sync a lot today right from the get-go. We couldn't get matched up. We couldn't figure out who we were guarding and had more blown coverages today then we probably had in the last three weeks combined. We just weren't very effective or efficient. When that happens then all kinds of other variables come into play which make things difficult.”

Sanders, Fairmont State's junior first-team all-conference guard, proved to be hard to handle for the Golden Eagles from the start. He scored 23 of his team's first 35 points and helped FSU take a 35-29 lead to the halftime locker room.

“My teammates found me like they always do so shout out to them,” said Sanders, who was 11-of-16 from the field, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range and tied the tournament single-game record for steals with six. “The first half I was feeling it. I got my shots up. In the second half they guarded me pretty tightly and that let people like Dale (Bonner) and Cole (VonHandorf) go off. That just shows how dangerous we are as a team.”

Bonner and VonHandorf struggled for Fairmont in the first 20 minutes. Bonner had eight first-half points, but was just 3-of-9 from the field, while VonHandorf was held scoreless on 0-of-5 shooting. In the second half both got on track offensively for the Falcons.

VonHandorf was 6-of-9 from floor in the second half and finished with 15 points, six rebounds and four assists. Bonner, on the other hand, missed his first six shots of the second half, but canned four of his final five field goals, including a pair of 3-pointers and an old-fashioned three-point play which helped Fairmont State quell a UC rally and extend an eight-point lead to 17 in a two-minute span around the 6:35 mark.

“In the second half they adjusted their defense and really denied Zay (Sanders) the ball, so Dale just had more room,” Koenig said. “In the first half they really keyed on him (Bonner) and denied him the ball. Zay making a few shots really opened the floor for him and when you're able to get stops and rebound you can run with the ball. A big emphasis for us is rebounding the ball.”

Osborne says VonHandorf and Bonner both proved to be hard to handle for his team in the final half.

“Bonner was really good down the stretch for them,” Osborne said. “I think Keith (Williams) did a phenomenal job on him. I think I remember seeing he was 3-of-15 at one point in the game. So, I thought Keith did a really good job and made things tough for him, but we just really struggled to guard Sanders.

“Actually I thought Cole was very good for them too. He made some big plays down the stretch. We've just got to get better.”

Bonner finished with 22 points, 13 of which came in the game's final 7:34. Fairmont also got eight points and a team-high eight rebounds from Zyon Dobbs and six points and five rebounds from Seth Younkin.

Keith Williams led UC with 18 points.

“Fairmont came out and played very hard,” Williams said. “They out-rebounded us today. I feel like they were just the tougher team and they deserved to win.”

The Golden Eagles also got 17 points from Seth O'Neal, 13 of which came in the game's final 10 minutes. Lamont McManus chipped in 13 points and six boards for Charleston, while Shaunn Monroe finished with 10 points.

Fairmont State dropped its two previous MEC Tournament title game appearances to Glenville State in 2015 (65-58) and to West Liberty in 2017 (67-65). The Falcons have not won a conference tournament championship since 1984 when they played in the now defunct West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

The University of Charleston's season will continue next week. The Golden Eagles are expected to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional which will be held at West Liberty University beginning Saturday, March 13.