By KYLE LUTZ

For The Times Leader

INDIANA, Pa. — It was a battle between two opposite styles of play. West Liberty, which leads the nation in points per game, faced off against Mercyhurst, which ranks second in scoring defense.

The Lakers, proved that defense does win championships as they held the Hilltoppers to 35.2 percent shooting (25 of 71) and also scored the first 12 points of the first half en route to a 82-70 victory to claim the Atlantic Regional Championship on Tuesday Night at the Kovalchick Complex on the campus of Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Mercyhurst advances to the Elite Eight that will take place in Evansville, Ind. The quarterfinals start Wednesday, March 27.

“First off, congrats to Mercyhurst and Coach (Gary) Manchel. They’re a really good basketball team,” West Liberty (28-5) coach Ben Howlett said. “The emphasis for us was, ‘How are we going to score against their defense?’ I think going into the game, their defense was probably the best we’ve faced all season.

“Looking at the stats, when you shoot 35 percent from the floor, you’re probably not going win too many games, especially in the Sweet 16.”

West Liberty stared at a 36-31 deficit with two minutes to go in the first half. However, an 8-0 run that was capped by a conventional 3-point play by Marlon Moore Jr. put the score at 39-36 with 1:10 remaining.

The Lakers (26-7), though, came out of the locker room with passion as they held the Hilltoppers scoreless for just over four and a half minutes and scored the first 12 points.

Jason Massey netted a jumper to cap the run and put the score at 50-39.

“I think their half court defense is really good,” Howlett said. “And they shut down some driving lanes. Obviously, I thought we got relatively good looks in the first half and they didn’t fall and you have those games.

“But they had to do something with it too. They were in the passing lanes a lot of the time, especially in the second half. There was a run there when they made some contested 3s and the shot clock was running down a couple of times. They were still able to make some tough 3s.

“They are a really good team and well-coached. It wouldn’t surprise me if they won some games at the Elite Eight.”

The Lakers took its biggest lead of the game at the 10:59 mark on a bucket by Massey. West Liberty put together one final push and got within eight.

Will Yoakum drained a 3-pointer with 6:21 left as West Liberty scored six straight to put the score at 71-63.

With the game still in the balance, the Hilltoppers made some uncharacteristic errors and turnovers and could not get any closer.

“I think guys were trying a little bit too hard there at the end,” Howlett said. “Rather than just taking it possession by possession, have a good possession on offense, let’s move the ball and see if we can get an easy shot or get a stop. I think guys were going too fast and try to get 10 points in one possession. You can’t do that. You have to take it possession by possession and keep chipping away under four minutes.”

Four West Liberty players scored in double figures as Moore led the way with 16 points while Yoakum netted 13. Yahel Hill and Dalton Bolon both compiled 12 points for the Hilltoppers.

For the Lakers, Patrick Smith secured a double-double with 16 points and 17 rebounds.

Nelson Maxwell also supplied 16 points while both Massey and Derrick Ellis each had 13.

Nicholas Lang rounded out the double figure scorers with 12 points.

“West Liberty is a first-class act,” Manchel said. “Ben and the rest of the guys, they showed tremendous class on how they play. They’re a terrific program. Our hats go off to them.

“I thought it was the way we handled their press. We turned the ball over eight times and we told them at halftime we wanted to limit them to 10 or less 3-pointers in the second half because they had 15 in the first.

Our guys showed great composure. Derrick really controlled the tempo and our guys did a good job of mixing it up as far as when to attack or when to pull it out, especially towards the end of the game when we had the lead. ”

Smith was named the Atlantic Regional Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

Also making it on the All-Tournament Team was Massey, Eric Meininger, Bolon and Yoakum.

“I just got done telling the younger guys, ‘Remember this feeling. It stings really bad right now,'” Howlett said. “But we started two freshmen and two sophomores. We have a really young team with good recruits coming in. We have an All-Conference caliber kid sitting out. We’ll be back. We’ll be back next year and we’re going to work twice as hard in order to get back here.”

The Hilltoppers will also graduate five seniors in Meininger, Tyler Primmer, Brady Arnold, Nate Allen and Evan French.

“These five guys, I just got done telling them this, when you walk in the West Liberty locker room, you expect to see those five guys. They are West Liberty basketball. The loss stings, but its bigger than basketball right now because I don’t get to coach these five seniors anymore.”