When he joined UConn, Hurley was known as a fiery, hard-nosed head coach with a reputation for building and an obsession with winning – and other than working on toning down his sideline demeanor, not much has changed. Benedict’s in New Jersey, and he spent two years as the head coach turning around Wagner College with his brother Bobby as an assistant before leaving to build Rhode Island into an NCAA Tournament team and an Atlantic-10 conference champion in his fifth and sixth years at the helm. Hayes added 17, Jaeton Hackley chipped in with 11 and Sindou Cisse just missed a double-double with 10 points and 9 rebounds.Hurley had coached at the high school level at St. Scott finished with 30 points and 13 rebounds – both game-highs. He made 1-of-2 from the line for an 83-77 Hilltopper lead and McKinney tacked on two more free throws following a Yellow Jacket miss to put the game out of reach, 85-77, with just 16 seconds to play.īutler and McKinney finished with 16 points each to led West Liberty while Hinds added 14 big points off the bench and Cannady finished with 13 lightings. West Liberty ran nearly the full 30 seconds off the shot clock before Butler drew a foul going to the hoop. Hayes buried a 3-pointer to make it 82-77, the Yellow Jackets called a timeout with 1:02 remaining and Butler – with a bloody wad of gauze protruding from one nostril – made his way back onto the court. A pair of free throws made it a two-possession game, 80-74, with just under three minutes to play but, after the teams traded misses, Malik McKinney curled his way down the lane for a huge basket that put the Hilltoppers up, 82-74, with 1:39 to go.Īfter Black Hills’ P.J. He’s such a competitor, he’d probably cut it off before he let that happen.”Īs the WLU training staff trying to stop the bleeding, Scott fueled one last push for the Yellow Jackets. I knew if there was any way possible, Bryce wouldn’t let a bloody nose hold him out. “He’s so smart and he can defend in the paint and on the perimeter. “Having Bryce on the floor can solve a lot of problems for us,” Howlett said. The Hilltoppers’ seemingly-comfortable 18-point lead began melting away as 6-8 Chaz Hinds and the 6-6 Sarson each picked up their fifth personal fouls coming down the stretch.Ĭompounding the problem in the paint for West Liberty was a collision that forced All-American Bryce Butler out of the game with a bloody nose with just under six minutes to play. He scored 23 of his game-high 30 points in the second half with many of them coming at the charity stripe as 11 of WLU’s 23 personal fouls on the afternoon were committed against Scott. Joel Scott, Black Hills State’s 6-8 national player of the year, was responsible for most of that. The Hilltoppers led, 65-47, following a Ben Sarson layup off a feed from Cannady but the seeds of a Yellow Jacket comeback were being quietly planted in the scorebook as fouls began to mount on the West Liberty big men. West Liberty seemed to have things under control when play resumed, pushing the lead out to 18 points on multiple occasions as time slowly ticked away on the Black Hills State season. I’m really proud of the way they stayed composed and weathered the storm.” We have a pretty good group of guys, though. We expected them to make a run at us in the second half and they did. “We knew the game wasn’t over,” senior guard Steve Cannady said. West Liberty jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the game’s first two minutes and spent the rest of the opening half slowly padding that margin as the Yellow Jackets (29-6), who shot over 50 percent from the floor during the season, struggled to find the range against WLU’s aggressive up-tempo defense.Ī driving layup by Malik McKinney just ahead of the horn sent the Hilltoppers jogging off into the halftime locker room with a commanding 47-31 lead. We’ll let them enjoy this win tonight and start working on Nova Southeastern tomorrow.” They never panicked even when things weren’t going our way and as a result, we have a chance to play for a national championship on Saturday. “I’m proud of the way our guys battled through adversity today. That’s the only thing that matters on Saturday. We both came here with one goal in mind – to win a national championship for our school, our fans and our players. “I’m happy for Coach Crutchfield and I’m sure he’s happy for us,” Howlett said, “but Saturday’s game isn’t about him and I it’s about West Liberty and Nova Southeastern. 6 CSU-San Bernardino, 94-87, in Thursday’s other semifinal. Led by former WLU head man Jim Crutchfield, the Sharks defeated No. It was the 18th straight win for Coach Ben Howlett’s Hilltoppers (33-3), who will take on unbeaten and No.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |