Box Score ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University women's basketball team fell to Fairmont State, 77-63, Thursday night in Mountain East Conference action at the Carter Center.
Concord (9-14, 7-12 MEC) was paced by junior forward
Andrea Bertrand, who finished with 13 points and six rebounds and junior guard
Rachel Artrip, who scored a team-high 14 points including thanks in part to a 2-for-4 effort from three-point range.
Bertrand now sits at 999 career points and 494 career rebounds. With one point and six rebounds, the Midlothian, Va. native will become the sixth player in Concord history to achieve 1,000 points and 500 rebounds for her career.
Artrip has scored in double digits in six straight games and eight of her last 10 overall. She is averaging 13.6 points per game over that stretch.
Concord scored the first three points of the night on a made free throw by junior forward
Jacqueline Kestner and layup by Bertrand. Fairmont State (14-8, 12-7 MEC) proceeded to go on a 12-2 spurt to take a 12-5 lead with 12:27 remaining in the first half.
The Mountain Lions proceeded to rattle off a 9-4 run off their own to trim to their deficit to 16-14 in at the 10:16 mark in the period. Junior guard
Melea Smith bookended the run with a jumper and a three-pointer with baskets by senior center
Sammi Webster and junior guard
Sissy Wagner in between.
Fairmont State ended the first half by scoring 24 of the final 32 points to take a 40-22 lead into intermission.
The Fighting Falcons stretched their lead out to as many as 24 points with 7:50 left in the game, before Concord began a comeback that saw the Mountain Lions score 11 consecutive points.
Kestner fueled the run by making two three-pointers to cut the deficit to 65-52 with 5:41 left in the game. However, Fairmont State answered back with a quick 8-0 run to put the game out of reach on the way its 77-63 win.
The Concord bench combined for 16 points with nine from Smith, five points from freshman guard
Olivia Morgan and two from sophomore guard
Leslie Mack.
Webster finished the game with six points, four rebounds and two blocks. With her two rejections, she moved into sixth place on the all-time blocks list with 52 blocks for her career and into 10th place in the single-season blocks at Concord with 30.
Also on the defensive end, Bertrand came away with three steals. Over her last three games, Bertrand has 12 takeaways. As a team, the Mountain Lions had nine steals and have now compiled 35 steals over their last three contests.
Concord held edges over Fairmont State in offensive rebounds (14-5), made free throws (14-13) and turnovers forced (19-14).
Fairmont State was led by Hailey Garrett, who scored a game-high 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Concord hosts Shepherd 2:00 p.m. Saturday at the Carter Center. CU, which beat the Rams 88-64 earlier in the season, will be going for the season sweep of Shepherd. Prior to the women's game, an alumni women's basketball game will be held at 10:00 a.m.
