The West Liberty women are two years removed from an appearance in the MEC Championship game and a spot in the NCAA Division II Tournament. It’s been six seasons since the Hilltoppers last hoisted the Mountain East Conference’s tournament champion trophy.
While WLU is still one of the preeminent programs in the MEC, it is no longer the program. That designation belongs to the Glenville State Pioneers, winners of three-straight tournament championships and four-straight regular season crowns. Only a loss to then Wheeling Jesuit in the 2016-17 tourney finals temporarily forestalled this championship run.
Hilltoppers coaching legend Lynn Ullom used to say that at “West Liberty, we play for championships.” When you win six conference tournament championships and qualify for the NCAA tournament 14 times, it’s a fair statement to make.
Current Coach Kyle Cooper enters his fourth season coming off a rare sub.500 campaign, only the school’s third in the last 10 seasons. But West Liberty showed promise down the stretch, and, despite two key losses to graduation, the Hilltoppers’ returners, bolstered by a talented recruiting class, just may have Cooper’s bunch headed back toward the top of the MEC standings.
“I’m really excited about this class,” Cooper said. “We did a good job of balancing our needs. A lot of people look at a class and say you need to replace what was lost the year prior, but we don’t look at it that way. We felt like we were replacing from the last two years.”
What Was Lost
Two seasons ago, it was MEC Player of the Year Marissa Brown and her 6-foot-3 frame posting nightly double-doubles as the Hilltoppers finished 21-10, losing to Glenville four times, including in the MEC Finale and the NCAA Tournament regional opener.
Two starters returned from that team, but its offensive identity was missing. While WLU searched for that identity, it struggled in conference play with a 4-11 mark after starting the season 3-4. The team finished eighth in scoring (76.2), seventh in 3-point percentage (.309), and next to last in total field goal percentage (.387). Compounding matters was the team finished 10th in both offensive and defensive rebounds.
To put things in perspective, the team leader, and actually eighth-ranked in the conference in rebounding, was junior Audrey Tingle at 8.2 points per game. Keep in mind, Tingle is the team’s point guard.
“She’s definitely the straw that stirs the drink; it’s incredible,” Cooper said of the soon-to-be senior. “We’ve had so many quality scorers, and because of how fast we play, she gets overshadowed. But she’s a triple-double machine.”
Tingle returns, along with fellow starters Olivia Belknap and Jaclyn Kitts. But the team does lose roughly 50 percent of its scoring production, along with its top perimeter threat in Morgan Brunner and Taylor Johnson.
Three starters plus one budding deep threat in sophomore Corinne Thomas and a host of talented yet relatively untested underclassmen are tasked with getting West Liberty on the right side of .500.
Incoming Experience
Cooper is elated with his young players’ development. He feels that combined with the talent and experience of the incoming class–two are junior transfers–that he has the right makeup to surprise any naysayers.
“We have a couple who are pretty polished and ready to make an impact right away,” Cooper said. “We have two big-time transfers coming in, and the biggest thing is we have more experience right off the bat. Those two have played a lot of basketball.”
Those two are Arriana Manzay, a 6-3 forward from Cisco College in Mesquite, Texas, and 5-6 guard Sydney Reed from Mansfield University (Pa.).
Let’s start at the top, literally. Manzay gives West Liberty what it was lacking a season ago, an athletic, dominant post presence, capable of compiling points and rebounds en masse while providing a stalwart defensive presence.
“It’s not just her size, but she is off-the-charts athletic,” Cooper said of Manzay. “We haven’t had someone with that kind of athleticism since Kiki Simpson, and this is on a 6-3 frame, not a 5-11. I’m not guaranteeing she will be what Kiki was, but she has the makings of a that type of player. She’ll have an impact on both sides of the floor.”
Reed is coach’s kid and former two-time state champion at Juniata Valley High School. She’s spent the last two seasons toiling away in the always tough Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference at Mansfield.
She averaged 6.8 points per game for Mansfield while leading the team in three and 3-point percentage (40%).
“She will bring scoring, no doubt, and she will see an increase in value in our system,” Cooper said. “That’s not a criticism of Mansfield; it’s just who we are as a team. She moves well off the game and sees the game well.”
The Gem and Potential Steal
The gem of this class may be Mohawk’s Karly McCutcheon, a 5-9 shooting guard who was named the Post Gazette’s Class AAA Player of the Year.
She finished with 1,099 career points, despite missing nearly all of her junior season with an injury. Hitting at 40-percent from behind the arc, McCutcheon set school marks in 3-pointers in a game (9), season (91) and career (185).
“She may be one of the most polished high school players we’ve signed, or I’ve signed here or elsewhere,” Cooper said. “She’s unbelievably strong and is a big time 3-point shooter. She had a lot of mid-major interest, but no one was willing to pull the trigger. After our home visit, she decided she wanted to be a part of the West Liberty family.”
Cooper admits that he first found McCutcheon while attending an AAU scrimmage to observe a few other players. But McCutcheon immediately caught his attention.
“I’d never seen her play, but I was told to watch her from one of the coaches who knows who we are and how we play,” “Cooper said. “Within five minutes, I looked at (assistant coach) Cassie (Seth) and said that kid needs to go here. She’s now our top priority, and we worked tirelessly to get her.”
How tirelessly you ask? During their home visit, Cooper put on the Topper the Bear school mascot costume for when McCutcheon answered the door.
Whether or not it was that personal touch, or how much West Liberty made an effort to secure McCutcheon’s commitment while others perhaps shied away because of the injury is hard to say. Cooper’s main concern is she’s now a Hilltopper.
Pair of Rookies
Rounding out the five-player class are two-time all-Ohio post Jenna Riccardo from Beaver Local and two-time all-WPIAL guard Amaia Johnson from East Allegheny High School in North Versailles.
Riccardo is no stranger to local basketball fans as the 5-10 forward has been posting double doubles for years. She led the Beavers to the OVAC Class AAAA championship as a junior and a runner-up finish as a senior.
For her career, she finished with 1,767 points and 1,032 rebounds, both school bests. She gives the Hilltoppers another capable post scorer and tireless worker on the glass.
“She worked tirelessly to improve her foot speed, something we asked her to work on,” Cooper said. “When we saw how hard she worked before getting here, we can’t wait to see her once she’s here. She can bang down low and is physical but can also stretch the floor.”
Riccardo is joined by Johnson, an attacking, athletic guard who was also a soccer standout at East Allegheny. Playing at West Liberty’s torrid pace won’t be a problem for her. Johnson finished her career with more than 1,300 points. Her older sister was the ASUN Freshman of the Year at Kennesaw State
“She’s another WPA Bruins player,” Cooper noted as his roster is growing with former players from the Western Pa. AAU organization. “Her best basketball is still to come. She plays in transition well and is great at playing downhill. She knows how to get to the hoop, especially in transition.”
