Today: Notre Dame College men's basketball is the five seed in the Mountain East Conference Tournament and will play the top seed, No. 5 West Liberty University, on March 4, at 6 p.m. in the semifinals. The game will be played at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling, W.Va.

Tournament Central: To get more information on the MEC Tournament, click here. The two seed Fairmont State University will play the six seed Davis & Elkins College, on March 4, at 8:30 p.m. The winner of that matchup will play the winner of NDC-WLU in the MEC Championship Game, on March 5, at 5 p.m.
 
Tickets: To buy tickets, click here.

Records: Notre Dame has a record of 17-12 and West Liberty is 26-3.

Coaches Corner: Mark Richmond is in his fourth season as the head coach of the Falcons. He has an overall record of 49-55. Ben Howlett has been at the helm of the West Liberty program for six seasons and has a record of 154-24.

Rankings: In the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) top 25 poll, West Liberty is No. 5 in Division II. According to the latest NCAA Division II Regional Rankings, West Liberty is second in the Atlantic Region. The top eight teams from each region earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Series History: West Liberty won both games in the regular season and hold a 19-3 record over NDC since the 2013-14 season.

Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame won its first game in the conference tournament since 2019, upsetting the four seed West Virginia State by a score of 92-79. In 29 minutes of action, Obinna Ugwuakazi totaled a career-high 22 points and 19 rebounds, including 14 points and 10 rebounds in the second half. Ugwuakazi shot 8-for-10 from the field. Tyland Crawford finished with a season-high 19 points in the game, while Jaedon Willis added 17 points and five assists. DeAirius Barker played 39 minutes, scoring 13 points and dishing out seven assists. NDC held W.Va. State to just 21 points, nine made field goals and 25-percent shooting in the first half. For the game, the Falcons shot 50-percent, while West Virginia State finished at 35-percent.
 
Jaedon Willis ranks second in the conference, and 19th in NCAA Division II, in points per game, with 21. He also ranks second in the MEC in free throw percentage (88.2-percent), third in three-point percentage (39.5-percent) and fourth in threes made per game (2.8). He is eighth in the country in free throws made, with 162. Obinna Ugwuakazi has posted four double-doubles in the last five games and, in that span, he has three games of, at least, 16 rebounds. He is now eighth in the MEC in rebounding per game, with 6.7 per game, and tied for third in offensive rebounding, at 2.7 per game. DeAirius Barker is averaging 3.2 assists each game, which ranks 11th in the conference.
 
Notre Dame will look to shut down West Liberty's offense, as they did against WVSU in the first half yesterday. The Falcons rank second in the conference by allowing just 76.7 points per game. They lead the MEC in both opponent field goal percentage, at 43-percent, and opponent three-point percentage, at 30.3-percent. NDC hauls in 38.7 rebounds per game, which is fifth best in the MEC. They also total an average of 27.2 defensive rebounds per game, which ranks fourth, and 11.5 offensive rebounds per game, which is fifth-best. Notre Dame is fifth in the conference in turnover margin (plus-0.55), sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.02) and sixth in assists per game (13.86). In NCAA Division II ranks, the Falcons are 10th in three-point percentage defense and 18th in free throws made per contest (16.4).

Noting the Hilltoppers: West Liberty took care of the eight seed Concord University, in the quarterfinals, with a 96-72 victory. The Hilltoppers led by just nine points, 38-29, at halftime. They would go off for 58 second half points, while shooting 57-percent from the field. Five players scored in double digits for WLU in the game. Bryce Butler made seven shots from the field and totaled 18 points and 10 rebounds, Christian Montague added 15 points and Ben Sason had 11 points and eight rebounds. Off the bench, Zach Rasile (13 points) and Alek West (11) both scored in double-digits off the bench. Concord turned the ball over 18 times and WLU took advantage for 22 points off turnovers. The Hilltoppers also had 11 more second chance points and 14 more fast break points.
 
Bryce Butler is leading the conference, and is 12th in the country, with a scoring average of 22.3 points per game. He also ranks fourth in the conference in field goal percentage (59.2-percent), fourth in rebounds per game (7.3), fifth in assist/turnover ratio (1.9) and seventh in assists per game (3.7). He ranks second in D2 with 257 field goals made and 14th in total points, with 630. Zach Rasile (2.3 three pointers made per game) and Christian Montague (2.2) are sixth and seventh, respectively, in the conference in threes made per contest. Ben Sason makes two 3-pointers each game and has snuck into the top 10 in the conference in that category, as well. Christian Montague is sixth in the league in assists per game (3.8), while Steve Cannady (3), Alek West (2.7) and Montague (2.7) all rank in the top three in the MEC in assist/turnover ratio. Cannady and Montague also rank in the top ten with 1.6 and 1.5 steals per game, respectively.

West Liberty leads the conference in points per game (101), scoring margin (plus-19.3 points per game), three pointers made per game (12.7), turnover margin (plus-8), assist/turnover ratio (1.92), assists per game (22.6) and steals per game (11.1). They also rank second in the MEC in three-point percentage (37.9-percent), third in offensive rebounds per game (12.8), fourth in free throw percentage (73.7-percent) and sixth in rebounds per game (37.7). In NCAA Division II rankings, the Hilltoppers are first in the country in assists average, assist/turnover ratio and three pointers made per game. The team is second in scoring offense, scoring margin, steals per game and turnovers forced per game (19.9). They are third in turnover margin.