CANTON, Ohio – The Malone University men's basketball team enters their first NCAA Division II Tournament on Saturday when the #6 seed Malone Pioneers face the host institution, #3 West Liberty University Hilltoppers out of the Mountain East Conference (MEC), in the First Round of the Atlantic Regional. The Pioneers are looking for their 11th consecutive victory after securing a Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) Championship one week ago.
 
GAME INFORMATION:
#6 Malone Pioneers (17-6, G-MAC Champions) @ #3 West Liberty Hilltoppers (15-4, MEC Runner-Ups)
NCAA DII Men's Basketball Championships – Atlantic Regional (First Round)
Academic, Sports and Recreation Complex – West Liberty, WV (6 pm)
Live Video/Stats
 
NCAA DII ATLANTIC REGION BRACKET:

 
HARDWOOD SERIES HISTORY:
Malone is 1-5 all-time against West Liberty. The last time these two teams met was in 2014, when the Pioneers traveled to West Virginia to face the Hilltoppers in a regular season non-conference game. West Liberty came away with the win in that one 96-73. The lone win for the Pioneers in the series was in 1994 when Malone bested West Liberty 97-70 in Canton, Ohio.
 
#6 MALONE PIONEERS TEAM NOTES:
Schedule | Roster | Statistics
 
The 2020-21 Malone Pioneers team led by Casey Kaufman is in the midst of a historic winning streak in team history. With a win in the First Round, this Malone team would hold the third-longest winning streak in school history at 11 games, behind only the Pioneer record 20-game stretch of wins in the 1990-91 season, and a 12-game spell in the 1973-74 season.
 
Malone is fresh off a G-MAC Championship victory over Cedarville 77-59 on Saturday. In three games last weekend, the Pioneers defeated #6 Cedarville, broke the bracket with a win over the host team and #1 seed Hillsdale 74-64, and upended team rival #5 Walsh at home 75-64. The win over Hillsdale was significant because Malone has shown they can defeat the Hillsdale Chargers, who are now the #1 seed in the Atlantic Regional as well.
 
The defense of the Pioneers has been outstanding in recent weeks, but it will certainly be put to the test on Saturday against the top scoring offense in NCAA DII in West Liberty. Malone holds opponents to 74.2 points per game, the fourth-lowest of the six teams in the Atlantic Region. However, the top scoring offense in the G-MAC at 82.0 points per game will be going up against a Hilltopper defense that is ranked fifth of the remaining teams.
 
Justin Miller was named G-MAC Athlete of the Week for his postseason performance last week. Miller averaged 16.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game, while being a huge catalyst on the defensive end of the court to getting stops. Miller, along with G-MAC All-Defensive Team member Marcus Ernst, and pesky on-ball defender Bryce Butler, have anchored the defense all season long. Ernst averages 9.5 rebounds per game to lead the G-MAC and is tied for the NCAA DII lead with 12 double-doubles with points and boards this season. Butler held the opposing point guard in check in all three postseason games, as Christian Montague, Connor Hill and Brandon Maughmer totaled 19 points and were 7-for-31 from the field.
 
Jaret Majestic, Bo Myers and Justin Miller are some of the G-MAC's best shooters from three. The trio combined to net six three's against Walsh and Hillsdale and collectively knocked down 10 shots from behind the line in the Championship game. Majestic is the conference leader in three-point field goal percentage at 42.4% and Myers ranks fifth at 39.0%.
 
#3 WEST LIBERTY HILLTOPPERS TEAM NOTES:  
West Liberty enters play with a 15-4 overall record and were defeated by Fairmont State 102-99 in the MEC Championship game on Sunday. The loss to Fairmont State ended a streak of three consecutive MEC titles for the Hilltoppers. Prior to that, West Liberty had won 11 straight games and are 7-1 at home in the 2020-21 season. The Hilltoppers are led by fourth year head coach Ben Howlett.
 
In postseason play, West Liberty cruised to a 102-68 win over Concord University in the quarterfinal round, then Malik McKinney knocked down a game-winning three-point field goal to secure a 95-92 win over Glenville State in the semifinal round on Saturday. In the championship game, the Hilltoppers shot 36-for-67 (53.7%) from the field including 15-for-35 (42.9%) from deep, and were led by Pat Robinson with 27 points and Luke Dyer with 24.
 
West Liberty is a team that pushes the basketball up the floor and does everything on offense with efficiency. The Hilltoppers are the leaders in NCAA DII in scoring offense (104.8 PPG) and rank in the top five nationally in scoring margin (23.6), assists per game (19.5), assists-to-turnover ratio (1.64), total rebounds per game (44.6), offensive rebounds per game (15.6) and turnover margin (5.2). Six players shoot above 50% from the field and four players above 40% from three.
 
Dalton Bolon and Pat Robinson lead West Liberty in average scoring at 21.7 and 20.2 points per contest. Bolon is a guard that can do everything at a high level. Bolon shoots 51.4% from the field overall, 44.2% from three and 93.1% from the free throw line. He is the team's leading rebounder at 7.8 boards per game and has dished out 50 assists. Robinson gets to the free throw line the most of the Hilltopper players.
 
Luke Dyer and Elijah Watson are not big scorers of the basketball, but have the power to break out at any given time. Dyer has distributed a team-high 81 assists and 39 steals. Dyer is third in NCAA DII in assist-to-turnover ratio at 3.86 and 18th in steals nationally. Watson has started the last 14 games for West Liberty, but has played only 13 combined minutes over the last two games. Bryce_Butler (yes, there is a Bryce_Butler on West Liberty's roster as well) has been the fifth starter for the Hilltoppers and had a red hot postseason thus far. Butler averaged 14.0 points and 4.7 rebounds per game in the last three and shot 56% from the field overall and 64% from three.