By Shawn Rine for MountainEast.org

WHEELING, W.Va. -- Let's try this one more time.

West Liberty entered Saturday night's Mountain East Conference Tournament semifinal against West Virginia State well-armed with the knowledge that no regular-season champion has ever gone on to win a tourney title. The top-seeded Hilltoppers (26-4) came up short in that endeavor a year ago, but they're going to attempt to right that ship Sunday.

Redshirt sophomore Will Yoakum poured in 31 points to lead three double-figure scorers as No. 11-ranked West Liberty overcame a nine-point, first-half deficit for a hard-earned, 88-81 victory against a West Virginia State (19-10) team that appears as though it will be a problem for years to come.

"We've heard the stat for years and we want to do it," a relieved WLU coach Ben Howlett said. "We told our guys at practice on Tuesday that this is a three-game mission. We're not going to win one game. We're not going to win two games. We're going to win three, and we have the opportunity to do it tomorrow."

That the Hilltoppers would get that chance, was very much up in the air for much of this game. The Yellow Jackets, who are the last team to hand West Liberty a loss -- the only one in its last 21 games -- had its way for the majority of the first half.

All-MEC guard Glen Abram was unconscious, hitting one shot after another from well beyond the 3-point arc on his way to scoring 19 points. When Abram and Michal Seals connected on consecutive 3s, the State lead reached nine at 44-35. But the Hilltoppers closed on a 9-0 blitz to send the teams to the locker room at the half tied, 44-44.

At that point State was pounding West Lib on the boards, holding a  20-7 rebounding advantage.

"I yelled at them pretty good in a timeout, and I think we were expecting just a couple guys to get a rebound," Howlett said. "We're not the biggest of teams so it requires all five guys. I thought it was better in the second half."

It was.

The Yellow Jackets still had the edge on the league's best-rebounding team, but the margin was only three. Overall, State outrebounded West Liberty, 39-23.

The lead changed hands three times early in the second half and was the game was tied on five other occasions. The Hilltoppers, however, took control for good with an 11-2 run that forced State into a timeout.

MEC Player of the Year Dalton Bolon, who shook off a tough performance a night earlier to score 21 in this one, tallied for a 64-62 upper hand before Yoakum cashed back-to-back 3-pointers.

"I thought it was a heckuva game to be a part of, but in the second half maybe we lost our legs (because) I might have rode the horses too long and I should have subbed," WVSU coach Bryan Poore said. "I thought our shots didn't fall as well in the second half as they did the first half. But I'm really proud of these guys. We're back at the top of the league and I think we're going to be there for a long time."

West Virginia State didn't go away quietly. Anthony Pittman, who tallied 22 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, scored three straight baskets including two where he put back his own misses, to cut it to a 70-68 game. 

However, Bolon responded and Pat Robinson III, who checked in with 12 points, hit a pair of shots to extend it back to 76-68. West Liberty hit all its free throws down the stretch -- it was actually 14-for-14 overall -- to hold off the stubborn Yellow Jackets, and earn a shot at making history.

"I thought it was a really high-quality basketball game," Howlett said. "Really proud of our guys' effort.

"They never panicked and continued to stay the course. I thought we had a couple guys really step up in Dalton, and another guy who probably isn't going to get a lot of recognition, in Malik McKinney. I thought he did a phenomenal job of guarding Glen Abram."

Abram paced the Yellow Jackets with 26 points while Jeremiah Moore had 12 to go with a game-high 11 rebounds. Seals netted 12 points and six assists.

"We tried to hold the ball and slow it down a little bit," Poore said. "This is not Big Ten basketball. It's not going to be 66-60 every night. I thought for the most part we controlled the pace. They made a couple little runs, but I thought we did a good job executing what we had to do."