Ben Sarson and Dante Spadafora have been to the pinnacle of NCAA Division II basketball.
The WPIAL products are now poised to begin the journey to get back.
Sarson, a 2020 Central Catholic graduate, and Spadafora, a 2021 Our Lady of the Sacred Heart graduate, are key contributors on a West Liberty men’s basketball team, which finished the regular season ranked fourth in the Division II Atlantic Region and is set to begin Mountain East Conference tournament play as the second seed.
A season ago, the Hilltoppers advanced to the NCAA Division II national championship game for the second time in school history.
“It definitely leaves a little bad taste in your mouth when you get that close to it and then you don’t quite get it,” said Sarson, a Sewickley native, of falling to undefeated Nova Southeastern in last year’s national title game. “It does kind of bring us back into this season, I think, with a little more confidence, too. It’s just like, hey, we got there. We can do it. We rebuilt our squad and there’s no reason we can’t do it again, get back there, and have another chance.”
West Liberty, a small West Virginia public university located about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh, clinched a share of its 14th conference title in the past 15 seasons with a victory in its regular-season finale last week. The Hilltoppers (23-5) open the MEC tournament with a quarterfinal matchup against Glenville State (14-15) at 2:30 p.m. Friday at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling, W.Va.
“Our guys got a little taste of success last year,” said West Liberty coach Ben Howlett, whose team is ranked No. 14 in the nation. “I think, especially for the returning players, I think it would be very cool and very rewarding, if somehow, someway we could get back to that Elite Eight.
“They know what it takes now,” he added. “They’ve been there. Let’s see if we can get back there and on the day-to-day basis do the things that got us there.”
The Hilltoppers had a tall task in replacing one of the best players in program history this winter.
Latrobe native Bryce Butler — a 6-foot-5, 200-pound guard/forward — led all Division II players with 829 points last season. He averaged 22.4 points per game, good for 13th in the country, to go along with his 7.6 rebounds per game and .433 shooting percentage from beyond the 3-point arc.
Butler transferred to Division I College of Charleston in April, where he has excelled, and on Thursday was named Colonial Athletic Association Sixth Man of the Year.
Howlett said it was “impossible” to replace a caliber of player like Butler.
“We’re finding different ways to win,” Howlett said. “With Bryce, he could solve a lot of issues just by being out on the floor from an offensive standpoint and a defensive standpoint. We’ve had to win differently.”
As much as West Liberty has missed Butler, the Hilltoppers have grown this season from playing with their junior standout of a year ago.
“Obviously, we know we’re not just going to have some guy that’s just going to isolate the whole game and just win us the game,” Sarson said. “We really have to focus on playing team basketball, which actually brings a lot of strength for us. We’re not just a one-trick pony. Honestly, we have nine or 10 guys who can go out and score double figures for us any night.”
West Liberty, which averages 98.9 points per game and a 19.2-point scoring margin, has five players averaging in double figures.
Guards Christian Montague and Zach Rasile each average a team-high 11.4 points per game, but Sarson is just behind them with an average of 11 points per outing.
A 6-foot-6, 205-pound junior forward, Sarson also averages 4.5 rebounds per game to go along with 44 assists, 17 steals and a team-high 26 blocks.
“I think he’s improved every year he’s been here,” Howlett said. “When he first got here, and he would be the first to tell you this, he was probably out of shape. He learned what he needed to do in order to get in shape and play our brand of basketball.
“I think he’s obviously gotten a lot stronger through the years,” Howlett added. “He’s a guy that can consistently make shots from the perimeter, and he stretches out the defenses.”
Early in his career, Sarson said he was a spot-up shooter.
“We had a lot of off-the-dribble scorers and a lot of just playmakers,” he said. “Now that I’ve kind of gotten into one of those roles, I feel like I facilitate a little bit more, and I kind of find driving lanes a little bit more and get downhill to the rim and create things for other guys.”
West Liberty’s high-paced, high-pressure offensive attack and full-court defensive press also has a major weapon in Spadafora.
The 6-foot, 160-pound redshirt sophomore guard who is a native of Pittsburgh’s Sheraden neighborhood, averages 9.1 points per game off the bench. He also has made a team-high 44% of his shots from 3-point range, while also contributing a team-leading 45 steals with 40 assists.
Howlett often subs his players in shifts, with five new players entering a game at a time.
Spadafora is a major contributor to that set of players off the bench.
“He’s our hustle guy,” Howlett said. “We tell our guys that we want other guys to make ‘Dante plays.’ Dante makes those special type of plays, and he’s always the smallest guy on the floor, but he plays so big. It’s not unusual to see him go in there and pull an offensive rebound down against the other team’s center or make an incredible steal on a pressure.
“You could argue that he’s our most valuable player.”
Regardless of what group of players is on the court, Sarson said he is excited to see what his team can achieve this postseason.
“If we can get a chance to go back and win the national championship this year, I think it would be a great thing for me to be able to leave a little mark on this program and be a guy that was just the first person to be able to get that done, the first team to be able to get that done,” he said.
John is a copy editor and page designer at the Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at jsanta@unionprogress.com.