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West Virginia Will Play Western Kentucky in Crossover Classic Championship Game

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WKU senior guard Taveion Hollingworth. (Photo by Dave Eggen/Inertia)

After winning the Cancun Challenge last season, the West Virginia Mountaineers will play for another tournament crown Friday when they face the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in the Crossover Classic championship game.

WVU and WKU will tip-off at 1:30 p.m. EST and the game will be broadcast on ESPN.

No. 15 West Virginia (2-0) defeated South Dakota State on Wednesday and VCU Thursday to advance to the final round. WKU (2-0)defeated Northern Iowa and Memphis en route to the championship.

“As usual, they’re very well-coached, Rick [Stansbury] does a great job of coaching them,” WVU coach Bob Huggins said Wednesday. “They’ve got a lot of experience, I think that’s the thing that stands out about them. They don’t lose their poise and they run what he wants them to run extremely well.”

WATCH: Huggins, Culver and McNeil Discuss WVU’s 78-66 Victory Over VCU

The Hilltoppers have been lead so far by senior guard Taveion Hollingworth, who scored 26 points against UNI and 18 against Memphis.

Redshirt-senior big man Charles Bassey led the Hilltoppers in scoring Thursday, with 21 points to go along with 14 rebounds. Huggins said Bassey and fellow big man Carson Williams, who had 14 points and nine rebounds, will be a focus of the Mountaineers tomorrow.

“I think they’ve got two really good bigs,” Huggins said. “I think their other big really kind of put the game away from them today being able to post and score around the rim.”

WKU also features former in-state hooper Luke Frampton, a former star for Poca who scored 14 points against UNI.

Western Kentucky was one of the last teams to join the field for the Crossover Classic. WKU replaced Creighton on Nov. 20. Huggins said the nature of these multi-team events that you do not have a lot of time to scout or prepare for your next opponent.

“I’ve done this long enough, you come to these things and I can’t worry about all these teams in here,” Huggins said with a chuckle. “We scouted four teams and didn’t play any of them. These things are you show up and you play, kind of like going to the playground and choosing studs and playing.”

Tournament bracket:

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