WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – West Virginia State's men's basketball team had their three-game winning streak broken as they fell to No. 14 West Liberty on the road by a final score of 118-76. WVSU went 1-for-16 from three-point land while West Liberty drilled 16-of-37 treys.

State falls to 9-9 overall, 6-6 in the MEC, while West Liberty improves to 16-3, 10-2 in conference play.

Jae Slack was WVSU's leading scorer, contributing 21 points on 9-of-19 shooting along with three rebounds and an assist. Bunky Brown made just his second start all season and scored 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting with five boards and two assists in 30 minutes of action. Kenyon Giles and Aymeric Toussaint also made scoring contributions with 14 and 12 points respectively.

Kameron Tinsley and JJ Harper led all scorers with 22 points each for the Hilltoppers.

West Virginia State kept pace early, leading briefly and battling in a competitive first quarter. However, West Liberty's high-pressure offense took over, knocking down threes at a high clip and capitalizing on WVSU turnovers. By halftime, WVSU trailed 54-43.

West Liberty put the game out of reach in the second half, outscoring WVSU 64-33. WVSU's shooting fell apart, hitting just 37.5% from the field and going 0-10 from three. Turnovers piled up, and West Liberty's transition offense dominated, turning giveaways into easy points. Despite individual efforts from Slack and Toussaint, WVSU had no answer defensively and fell 118-76.

WVSU looks to rebound against Wheeling in the Walker Convocation Center on Saturday, February 1 at 4:00 p.m.