Box Score
ATHENS, W. Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team dropped a 66-50 decision to Charleston Thursday night at the Carter Center in West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference competition.
Concord, which entered the game having won three of its last four games, falls to 6-3 overall and 2-3 in the WVIAC with the loss. Charleston's record now stands at 8-2 overall and 4-2 in league play.
Junior forward
Nick Ruffin made his presence known in the paint, coming off the bench for Concord to score a season-high 14 points to go with six rebounds and two blocks. Over his last two games, Ruffin is averaging nine points and eight rebounds per game. Senior forward
Damien Tunstalle and sophomore guard
Thomas Brown both added 10 points with Tunstalle also compiling four rebounds and two steals.
Sophomore forward
Jordan Davis contributed six points and six rebounds and senior forward
Gentry Shrewsbury managed to pull down five rebounds despite playing with foul trouble through the majority of the game.
The Mountain Lions out-rebounded their opponents for the fifth-straight game by totaling 39 boards, including 16 offensive rebounds, to Charleston's 30. However, Concord suffered its worst shooting performance of the year as CU hit just 33.3 percent (16-for-48) of its field goals while Charleston connected on 47.1 percent (24-for-51) of its shots. Concord did dominate bench scoring (20-7) and also held the edge in second chance points (16-12).
Concord found itself trailing 11-0 after the opening five minutes of play before battling back to cut the Golden Eagles' lead to just three points at 15-12 with 9:23 remaining in the opening half. The run was sparked by three points each from Ruffin, Brown and sophomore guard
Paul Byrd. However, Charleston responded with a 19-10 surge of its own to take a 34-22 advantage into halftime.
The Maroon and Gray continued to chip away at the Charleston lead in the second period and eventually cut the deficit in half to just six points (43-37) with 10:45 to play before Charleston was able to pull away for good with the 66-50 victory.
Guard Terrell Lipkins scored 23 points on 10-for-14 shooting to lead Charleston.
Concord will play two games over the next four days, starting with a 4:00 p.m. showdown at rival Bluefield State on Saturday January 5.
