Photo Provided West Liberty’s JJ Harper (13) boxes out a Fayetteville State defender during Sunday night’s NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional men’s basketball semifinal tournament game at the ASRC.

WEST LIBERTY — It wasn’t a classic masterpiece as West Liberty was used to playing, but it was good enough to get the Hilltoppers to the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional Championship Game.

Sunday night, West Liberty (29-4) used a 10-0 run to start the second half to put some distance between itself and Fayetteville State (23-9). A 14-2 surge moments later sealed the deal as the Hilltoppers rolled to an 89-69 victory over the Broncos before a crowd of 1,205 inside the Activities, Sports and Recreation Center.

“I definitely didn’t think we brought our A-game today, but we brought a good enough game to win,” West Liberty head coach Ben Howlett allowed. “Going into the game we really wanted to try and wear Fayetteville State down. They had just played an overtime game less than 24 hours earlier. The focus was on trying to wear them down and play as many bodies as we could.

“We did that and I think you saw at the start of the second half, they cracked,” he added. “We got some easy shots at the rim and developed a 20-point lead and never looked back.”

With the 20-point triumph, top-seeded West Liberty punched its ticket to Tuesday night’s championship game against No. 2 Gannon (27-6), which eliminated the Hilltoppers last year in the semifinals in Erie, Pa. The Knights advanced with a 92-66 rout of Virginia State.

The ball tips for the big game at 7 p.m. Tuesday, with the winner moving on to the Elite 8 at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind., on March 25-29.

West Liberty has now appeared in 11 Atlantic Regional championship contests (2010-2016, 2019, 2021 and 2023, 2025). They claimed regional titles in 2011-14, 2016, 2021 and 2023).

“It’s just another game and that is how we are going to approach it,” Howlett said of Tuesday night. “This team has gotten better during the year and they’ve learned how to practice throughout the year, as well. Monday we’ll do our thing that we’ve done all season long and Tuesday night we’ll tip it up and see where we are at.”

The contest was knotted five times in the first 20 minutes, the last at 19 as West Liberty netted nine unanswered points. The margin grew to as many as 14, 39-25, following a Dante Spadafora trey from the top of the key.

However, Fayetteville State scored the final four points of the half to trail by 10 going to the locker room.

“We were up 10 at the half and thought we were playing okay, but the message was to crank it another notch. We’ve shown the ability to do that in the second half multiple times this year, and these guys did it.”

Defensively, the Hilltoppers drew praise from their head coach.

“We held them to 42 percent (22-52) and 24 percent (4-17) from the three-point line,” Howlett said as he read from the stat sheet. “It was a good effort from everyone.”

Offensively, West Liberty had six players in double figures. Lanyc Shuler and Dante Spadafora evenly divided 32 as Spadafora drilled five triples and Shuler connected on 10 of 11 free throws. Finley Woodward and Kyler D’Augustino both added 13, while John Dragas had 11 and JJ Harper 10.

The Hilltoppers also enjoyed a 33-29 edge off the glass as Woodward pulled down a game-best 10. He also took game honors with five assists.

Tairell Fletcher led the Broncos with 15 points. Mysta Goodloe added 12 and Isaiah Ray 10.

West Liberty was guilty of 12 turnovers, which was seven less than Fayetteville State.

TIP INS

– West Liberty is now an amazing 37-15 all-time in NCAA Tournament games, including a sparkling 18-1 all-time inside the ASRC. However,

– West Liberty eliminated No. 8 Bluefield State (91-84) on Saturday in the quarterfinals, while Fayetteville State eliminated MEC Tournament champion Fairmont (74-67) in overtime.

– The meeting with Fayetteville State was only the second between the two schools. West Liberty won the previous encounter, 101-89, on Nov. 16, 2014, at the ASRC. In that game, Seger Bonifant led the ‘Toppers with 32 points, while CJ Hester and Mike Lamberti each contributed 14.