Much at stake as FSU visits West Liberty

By Duane Cochran

FAIRMONT — The most important women’s basketball game of the season for both Fairmont State and West Liberty takes place tonight at 5:30 p.m. at ASR Center — the home of the Lady Hilltoppers.

Tonight’s winner will still have an excellent chance at claiming the regular-season West Virginia Conference title and will take a giant step toward securing a bid to the NCAA East Regional Tournament in March.

The loser, on the other hand, will be out of the WVC title chase and will have a tougher road toward locking up a national tournament berth.

Tonight’s women’s game will be the first of a doubleheader as the men’s teams from the two schools square off at 7:30 p.m.

Both the Lady Falcons and Lady Hilltoppers enter this evening’s showdown with identical 19-4 overall records and 13-3 WVC marks. Based on WVC power ratings West Liberty is currently second in the league (138.12), while FSU is fourth (135). Shepherd University continues to lead the league (150.63), while Concord University is third (136.88).

In the all-important NCAA Division II East Regional Rankings released Wednesday West Liberty remained third in the region, while Fairmont stayed in the fourth spot. Indiana (Pa.) University retained the top spot in the regional rankings, while California (Pa.) University, despite a pair of losses last week, stayed second.

Fairmont’s women are still the only WVC school ranked among the Top 25 in the nation in the USA Today/ESPN/WBCA poll. The Lady Falcons are currently 19th in the country.

West Liberty comes into this evening’s game as the hottest women’s team in the league. The Lady Hilltoppers have won 10 in a row and are 8-1 at home this season. FSU, on the other hand, has struggled somewhat offensively lately, but has still strung together four consecutive victories. The Lady Falcons, though, are just 5-3 in road games.

The Lady Hilltoppers feature a balanced scoring attack led by 5-9 senior guard Renee Farina (12.9) and 5-8 freshman guard Tori Hansen (11.0). West Liberty also relies heavily on 3-point shooting. The Lady Hilltoppers are 216-of-685 from long range this season and have made 44 more 3-point field goals than any other WVC team.

In the first meeting between the two schools way back on Dec. 6 in Fairmont the Lady Falcons controlled the tempo of the game and locked down on West Liberty’s dangerous 3-point shooters holding them to a dismal 3-of-23 performance (13 percent) in a 61-51 FSU victory.

“This is a great opportunity for both teams to demonstrate what college basketball is all about,” said FSU coach Steve McDonald. “It’s an exciting rivalry. (West Liberty) coach (Lynn) Ullom once said to me he thinks this is the best rivalry in the West Virginia Conference.

“We’re excited about the game. It’s going to be very, very difficult because they play very well at home and they play with a lot of emotion at home. For us to have a chance we have to withstand the emotional peaks and play with controlled emotion ourselves.”

Last season the teams split the regular-season series with each squad winning at home.

In men’s action FSU will have its work cutout for it when it squares off against the nationally-ranked Hilltoppers.

West Liberty, which is currently ranked 11th in the country, second in the East Region and second in the WVC, is 19-3 overall and 13-3 in the league.

Monday night West Liberty fell behind on the road by 25 to league-leading Pitt-Johnstown before falling , 110-104. That loss snapped a six-game Hilltopper winning streak.

Fairmont State, on the other hand, is 15-8 overall, 9-7 and in sixth place in the league.

West Liberty leads the league in scoring (100.5 points per game) and uses a balanced attack to do it led by 6-4 senior forward Chris Banal (21.7) and 6-foot junior guard Ben Howlett (20.7). Banal scored 29 points and Howlett added 19 in an 86-82 victory over the Falcons in Fairmont back on Dec. 6.

“West Liberty is a great team, but we want this game bad,” said FSU junior center Jamal Womble. “We know to get it we have to play our ‘A’ game, play solid defense, rebound the ball and run our offense effectively.”

Both teams will be without key players tonight. The Falcons lost senior standout Adam Southern (12.7), a transfer from West Liberty, for the season a few weeks ago to a bad ankle injury, while the Hilltoppers are playing without senior guard Dan Binggeli (10.4), who reportedly suffered a broken hand against Concord on Feb. 2.

West Liberty is a perfect 10-0 in home games this season. The Falcons have not beaten the Hilltoppers since February of 2004. Since then FSU has dropped eight straight games to West Liberty.