District College Notebook: Quick transition for West Liberty's Hester
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C.J. Hester, a West Mifflin High School graduate, leads West Liberty in rebounding.
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West Liberty University men's basketball coach Jim Crutchfield knew C.J. Hester was a talented perimeter shooter when he was recruiting him out of West Mifflin High School.
But there was something Crutchfield did not know about Hester.
"I didn't realize he was that good of a rebounder," Crutchfield said.
His ability to shoot the basketball from the outside and rebound has earned Hester, a 6-foot-4 freshman guard, a starting spot with the Hilltoppers, who are 21-1 overall and 16-0 in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference before their game Thursday at Pitt-Johnstown. West Liberty is the No. 2-ranked NCAA Division II team in the National Basketball Coaches Association poll.
Hester is fourth on the team, which was averaging a whopping 103 points per game, in scoring at 13.8 points per game. He is the team's leading rebounder at 8.0 per game.
"He doesn't look to be a big leaper," Crutchfield said. "But then you look, and he's got 12, 13 rebounds."
Going into the contest at Pitt-Johnstown, Hester had eight double-doubles. His best games came at the end of January when he had 29 points and 14 rebounds against Concord and 31 points and 11 rebounds against Bluefield.
Hester, a biology major who plans to be a dentist, admits to being surprised about becoming a starter this early in his college career. He has been in West Liberty's starting lineup since Nov. 22.
"I knew we had some talented players graduate, but the guys who were coming off the bench last year played a lot, so I thought I'd come in and help as much as I could that way," he said.
But Hester came off the bench to score 13 points and grab 12 rebounds in the third game. He scored 19 points as a reserve the next game.
He fits in perfectly with West Liberty's run-and-shoot style in which every player is encouraged to take perimeter shots and run a fastbreak at every opportunity. The Hilltoppers have six players averaging double figures and lead Division II in scoring.
Before Thursday night, Hester had connected on 125 of his 204 field-goal attempts for a .613 shooting percentage, which was 18th best in Division II. He was 14 for 43 (32.6 percent) from 3-point range.
"It's a totally different style [of play] than what I was used to," Hester said. "We just go out and play basketball. The thing is that now we're playing together really well."
As for his rebounding ability, Hester said he always has been good at grabbing stray shots. He had nearly 1,000 rebounds in high school to go with his school-record 1,709 career points.
First Published February 10, 2012 12:00 am
