Lamberti

WEST LIBERTY — First, it was Jim Crutchfield and then it was Ben Howlett at West Liberty. Both of those highly successful basketball coaches owned win after win against Shepherd University. In fact, when first-year Coach Michael Lamberti led the Hilltoppers to their 89-81 win over the Rams on Saturday, it was West Liberty’s 15th consecutive victory over the Rams.

Crutchfield spent 13 seasons in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle before moving to Nova Southeastern in Florida, where he has won two national championships at the NCAA’s Division II level. He had a 359-61 record at West Liberty. Howlett, who was an assistant coach under Crutchfield, spent eight seasons as Hilltopper boss and finished with a sensational 191-37 record.

Coach Lamberti comes from Coker in South Carolina. He continued the platoon substitution ways of both Crutchfield and Howlett. Both those coaches recruited the Ohio and Pennsylvania mines and countryside for players and had very few roster spots for anybody from West Virginia. Lamberti’s first team doesn’t have a single player from West Virginia.

The first time Lamberti substituted five new players en masse against Shepherd came with 14:59 left in the first half.

The Hilltoppers want the fastest of tempos and paces. They fast break whenever possible and do the same with a full court press when on defense.

Early on, West Liberty claimed more loose balls and more offensive rebounds than the Rams.

They even forced turnovers in the backcourt after Shepherd secured a defensive rebound.

The Rams were able to reverse a 5-0 deficit and even took a 17-13 lead before the Hilltoppers used their fast hands and open court ways to get a 38-35 lead by halftime.

West Liberty had attempted 11 more shots than Shepherd at the break.

Just three minutes into the second half, West Liberty had 52-41 lead that it moved to 59-44 after outscoring the Rams 21-9 to begin the second half.

Another advantage with its constant offensive rebounding and finding loose balls pushed the Hilltoppers ahead.

When braking West Liberty’s penchant for speeding the tempo, Shepherd could score with its guard-dominated offense and brought the score back to only a three-point deficit at 74-71 at one time.

Either Marcus Banks or reserve Elwyne Wordlaw had the ball for extended periods of time in Shepherd’s halfcourt offense.

Free throws began to dominate the game, when Shepherd reached the bonus with 8:20 remaining and the Hilltoppers soon followed with 6:38 left.

The Hilltoppers had lost on the road at Virginia Union and Shepherd came in with a 3-0 record.

Xavier Harris scored 12 second-half points for West Liberty.

With three transfers from Coker, West Liberty might show some gradual improvement this season, but have a distance to travel to reach the same heights Crutchfield and Howlett reached. Shepherd achieved a 20-win-plus season a year ago and could do the same against a pre-dominantly PSAC East Division schedule this season.