The Big Game March 28--West Liberty 110 Winona State 84

West Liberty (WV) left no doubt as to why it is rated #1 in D2 as it demolished Winona State 110-84 in the Elite 8 at Louisville, KY. As impressive as West Liberty was in today's win, it was just another day at the office for the Hilltoppers. They've now won 3 NCAA tournament games by an average of 102-76. They are the highest scoring team in D2 with a season-long average of 104 points.

So today was really just more of the same, except that the victim was the last Minnesota amateur basketball team still playing, Winona State, who now completes their season at 27-8, the 7th straight time they've won 20 games.

Winona led 34-32 at 6:57 of the 1st but West Liberty ripped off 11 straight points and led 50-41 at the half. The lead got to 14 (59-45) in the 2nd but Winona battled back to within 59-53 before the wheels came off. 2-and-a-half minutes later the lead was 17 and another 2 minutes later it was 21, and the Warriors never challenged after that.

Clayton Vette, Winona's 6-9 post, finished his career after being name the D2 Player of the Year earlier in the day. He scored 14 points, bring his season total to 697, 2nd best in school history, and his career total to 1,750, 6th on the all-time list.