Box Score
ATHENS, W. Va. - Senior forward
Damien Tunstalle and sophomore guard
Thomas Brown both scored 17 points and the Concord University men's basketball team defeated Bluefield State 82-71 at the Carter Center Saturday afternoon. The Mountain Lions did not trail for the duration of the contest.
Saturday marked the final home regular season games in the career's of Tunstalle,
Eric Bailey and
Gentry Shrewsbury. The trio was honored in a ceremony prior to the game's opening tip.
Concord closes out its regular season with an overall record of 16-10 and a West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference mark of 12-10. CU has now posted back-to-back winning seasons under second-year head coach
Kent McBride.
The Mountain Lions also earned the right to host Pitt-Johnstown in a first round game of the WVIAC Tournament 6:30 p.m. Tuesday due to UPJ's loss against Seton Hill on Saturday. Concord defeated the Mountain Cats, 86-76, at home on Nov. 17.
Brown and Tunstall both had efficient shooting nights; Brown made 6-of-8 shots and Tunstalle went 7-for-9 from the floor. The duo also registered four and five rebounds, respectively. Tunstalle, who was 3-for-4 from three-point range, needs just five points to reach 1,000 for his career.
Sophomore guard
Mike Boyd added 16 points while sophomore forward
Jordan Davis chipped in 11. Boyd has scored 16.7 ppg over the last three games. Davis hauled in a team-high nine rebounds, finishing just shy of his third double-double of the year.
As a team, Concord went 29-for-51 (56.9 percent) in what was its second-best shooting performance of the season. CU won the rebounding battle (35-34) and also held advantages over Bluefield State (4-22, 4-18 WVIAC) in points off of turnovers (23-13), points in the paint (44-32) and second chance points (15-6).
Bluefield State and Concord traded baskets for the opening 8:36 of competition until a layup by Davis off of a feed from Brown gave Concord a 13-11 lead that it would never surrender.
The Blues kept the deficit within single digits at halftime (41-33), but an 8-3 Concord run to start the second half pushed the Mountain Lions' lead to a commanding 13 points (49-36).
The game was never in jeopardy for the rest of the period as Concord built its lead over BSC to as many as 20 points before settling for the 82-71 win largely behind the second-half scoring efforts of Brown (12 points), Tunstalle (nine points) and Boyd (eight points).
Bluefield State was led by Treon Claiborne, who had a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds.
