Basketball Preview 2016

Crutchfield, West Lib Reloaded for Title Run

By SHAWN RINE WEST LIBERTY — Goals? Jim Crutchfield doesn’t have many. He enters each game wanting to score not a specific number of points, but simply one more than the opposition that night. The way he sees it, that has worked out pretty well in the past. After all, Crutchfield is a two-time NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year who has a career record of 334-57, including seven NCAA bids, three Final Fours, a national runnerup finish, seven league championships and five regional crowns. ‘‘I have tried to really set them the same every ...

Toppers Young, Inexperienced

By SHAWN RINE WEST LIBERTY — Last year’s senior class was something special. The names Kailee Howe, Liz Flowers and Kiki Simpson will go down as some of the best to ever lace up sneakers for Coach Lynn Ullom, and Jasmin Kiley was a valuable contributor off the bench. But that group is gone. It’s attempting to be replaced by a group without all that much college basketball experience — particularly in Ullom’s system. ‘‘Not the first time I have had to face this,’’ Ullom said. ‘‘It’s happened two or three times where the next year ...

Sancomb, Cards Ranked No. 7

By SHAWN RINE WHEELING — Danny Sancomb took Wheeling Jesuit to the top of the Mountain East Conference last season. The key now is staying there. ‘‘I always think it’s harder staying at the top,’’ Sancomb said. The Cardinals certainly have the horses to do so. They’re coming off a 28-4 season that saw the program receive a No. 1 ranking in the country, a share of the conference crown and it played host to the Atlantic Regional. But WJU was upset in the first round of that tournament, and that has eaten away at the team’s collective stomach during the ...

WJU Women Out To Defend MEC Crown

WHEELING — The Wheeling Jesuit women are ready to defend their Mountain East Conference Tournament Championship. The Cardinals return 11 players, including four of their top-5 scorers, from a team that finished 27-6, including the program’s first NCAA Tournament victory against West Chester University. “As a team, we want to pick up where we left off last season,” WJU coach Debbie Buff said. “We aim to lead the MEC in defense for the second consecutive year, but we know the challenge that this will be. Our league is as talented as it’s ever been from top to bottom, so ...

Bethany Selected Seventh in PAC

GREENVILLE, Pa. — The Bethany College women’s basketball team was picked to finish seventh in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches’ Poll. After finishing 8-18 overall (6-12 PAC) last season, the Bison received 37 points in the poll voted on by the league’s coaches. The Bison enter a new era under first-year head coach Brian Sansom. Sansom came to Bethany after spending last season as an assistant at Division I Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey. Before his time at FDU, he served on staff for Montclair State (N.J.) for ...

Bison Men Are Tabbed Third

GREENVILLE, Pa. — The Bethany College men’s basketball team was picked to finish third in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches’ Poll. Thomas More, last season’s PAC runner-up, was tabbed as the preseason favorite after receiving six first-place votes. Four-time defending champion Saint Vincent earned three first-place votes and was picked to finish second, while the Bison secured the final first-place vote to slot third in the poll. Bethany second-year coach Nick Hager returns his entire starting lineup, including his top-three leading scorers, from a ...