Box Score CHARLESTON, W. Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team lost a 64-59 defensive battle to the University of Charleston Wednesday night in Mountain East Conference play at the Eddie King Gymnasium.
Charleston (18-7, 15-6 MEC), which entered the game ranked second in the MEC standings, led 62-59 with under 10 seconds left to play when an overtime forcing three-point attempt from sophomore guard
Cam Shannon fell just off the mark as the Golden Eagles narrowly avoided the upset to clinch a first round bye in the upcoming conference tournament.
Shannon led Concord (8-19, 5-16) with a team-high 14 points on 5-for-9 shooting from the field which included a 3-for-5 effort from three-point territory in addition to four rebounds.
Sophomore forward
Terry Hopewell just missed his second consecutive double-double with 12 points and a team-best seven rebounds to go with two blocks while freshman guard
Aaron Miller came off the bench to connect on four three-pointers on his way to a 12-point showing. The four triples was Miller's second-highest output from long range of the season.
Wednesday's game was a close contest for the entire 40 minutes as neither team managed to lead by more than eight points at any point of the night.
Concord found itself trailing by seven points at 17-10 with 9:19 to play in the first half when the Mountain Lions rattled off a 13-4 run to pull ahead 23-21 with three minutes remaining in the opening period off of a balanced attack that saw six players score baskets over the stretch including three-pointers from Miller and Shannon.
Charleston answered back to score seven of the half's final nine points to head into the break leading 28-25.
The second half featured more back-and-forth basketball with the two evenly-matched teams playing to a 49-49 tie with 7:43 left to play in regulation. The Golden Eagles went on to build a 58-51 advantage over the following two minutes only to have Concord cut its deficit to just one point at 60-59 with 2:11 showing on the clock behind three-pointers from Shannon and Miller as well as a layup from junior guard
Mike Boyd.
However, Concord was unable to come away with the go-ahead basket while Charleston's Denzel Douglas made a pair of free throws on UC's ensuing possession to extend the Golden Eagles' lead to 62-59 with 28 seconds to play leading to Concord's near three-point miss in the final seconds of play.
Charleston added two more free throws in the game's waning moments for the five-point victory, Concord's 11th defeat of the season by nine points or less.
The Mountain Lions committed just 11 turnovers on the night while forcing Charleston into 13 miscues. Concord's bench also outscored UC's 25-18.
For the game, Concord shot 46.2 percent (24-for-62) from the field and 36.8 (7-for19) percent from three-point range. UC finished at 44.2 percent (23-for-52) from the field and 31.3 percent (5-for-16) from behind the arc. The Golden Eagles made more free throws (13) than Concord attempted (nine).
Miller and freshman guard
Ali Barnes tied for a Concord-high of three assists each.
Aleksander Kesic tallied a double-double of 17 points and 13 rebounds to lead Charleston to the win.
The Mountain Lions will wrap up their regular season 4:00 p.m. Saturday against UVa.-Wise at the Carter Center. At halftime of the game, Concord's 1988-89 West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament championship team will be honored.
