Photo by Nick Henthorn West Liberty’s Jamie Muldowney goes up for a layup during Sunday’s MEC Men’s Basketball Championship game against Fairmont State.

WHEELING — From the outside, this year’s West Liberty men’s basketball squad was more of the same from the perennial D-2 power, as the Hilltoppers triumphed over the Fairmont State Falcons in Sunday’s MEC Men’s Basketball Tournament inside WesBanco Arena, 93-88, for their fifth conference tournament title and first since 2023.

Look a little deeper though, and the latest feather in West Liberty’s well-plumed cap looks a little more impressive than the Hilltoppers’ usual dominance.

First-year head coach Michael Lamberti certainly saw it that way.

“It’s a whirlwind of emotions and visions as I’m reflecting back on it,” Lamberti said after the championship win. “To think about, well, there’s one guy on the team that played minutes last year, two total, with Cooper Kent and Dante [Spadafora]. These are 14 new guys with four freshmen on the roster, 11 transfers, and they’re currently sitting at 27-4 as regular season and tournament champions. I’m a little biased, but I think this is one of the best stories in, if not college basketball, Division II basketball right now. And I feel bad for them because they have a little bit of disrespect because they just put the West Liberty logo on their shirt and it’s like, oh, they’re supposed to win. We just have this magic wand and play this magic system and yeah, West Liberty is just supposed to win.

“We got three freshmen starting in the lineup that didn’t have any college experience. They just keep getting better every single day. And we got a couple guys that have never played in this type of atmosphere before and they are just fired up to be at West Liberty. You got fans that are talking about 16 straight NCAA tournaments and 15 out of 16 conference championships, and these guys are coming from a 19-10 team or transfers from different programs or just coming out of high school. And for them to just come in every day fired up, not worry about any of the pressure– I think pressure is eliminated by preparation. Just, wow, what a story. These guys are incredible and I’m really proud of them.”

After two games of grind-it-out offense– West Liberty shot 37.5% in the quarterfinals and 44.4% in the semifinals– the Hilltoppers had a breakthrough in the championship game, shooting over 54% from the field and nailing 13 of 29 3-point attempts.

Offense looked effortless for West Liberty in the first half, where the Hilltoppers built a tidy 51-30 lead heading into the locker rooms. The West Liberty lead remained sturdy, ahead 83-73 inside the final two minutes of Sunday’s championship final, but back-to-back 3’s by Fairmont State’s David Jolinder and Miguel Martinez sent a jolt through WesBanco Arena. After a close win in the quarterfinals and a double-overtime thriller in the semifinals, it seemed like there was more MEC Tournament drama still in-store for the Hilltoppers.

Time, though, was not on the Falcons’ side. West Liberty made 8-10 free throws inside the final minute of play to hold onto their lead and capture the conference crown. Fairmont State got as close as three after Miguel Martinez was fouled on a 3-point attempt with six seconds left and shot 3-3 at the line, but West Liberty was able to inbound successfully, Jamie Muldowney making two free throws to salt away the game.

By game’s end, West Liberty turned out to have needed its rejuvenated offense in the championship bout.

“The stress and anxiety definitely gets minimized when the ball goes through the hoop a whole bunch,” Lamberti said simply. “We needed every bit of that 21-point lead. And like I said yesterday, we talked about the missed free throws and we talked about the poor percentages. It’s a next-shot mentality. Adversity is going to hit. Keep having confidence in the next shot. Have faith in the motion offense or whatever sets we’re calling. If you got a good open look with guys in rebounding position, you got the green light to shoot that thing. I don’t care if you’re 0-10, the next 11 ones going in.

“These guys did get work in our home arena after each game and they’re shooting free throws and got extra shots up. And they were fired up to shoot around today on our campus. I guess we just needed two games under our belt in this new arena with 14 new guys, and we were able to shoot it on day three finally.”

Freshman guard Myles Montgomery scored 13 points with four assists, five rebounds and three steals as Montgomery set a new MEC Tournament record for total steals with 14 across three games. Montgomery was named MEC Tournament MVP, one of three All-Tournament performers on West Liberty along with Muldowney and Cameron Williams, another freshman.

“It feels really good,” Montgomery said when asked about winning Tournament MVP. “It’s a blessing to have this, but I couldn’t have won this without a whole team effort. I might have got the trophy, but there’s many guys that could have won that trophy on this team. And I couldn’t have done anything I did without the coaches and all the players. I mean, it’s just a blessing to win it, but we’re a whole team and we got more games to win.”

Sunday, Peter Lattos led West Liberty with 18 points, while Montgomery and Hayden Abdullah each scored 13. Williams scored 12 and Aiden Davis scored 11 to make for five Hilltoppers in double-figures.

Drey Carter led Fairmont State with 23.

Sunday was a rematch of last year’s title game, where Fairmont State defeated West Liberty 122-114 in a triple-overtime classic.