Box Score
ATHENS, W. Va. – Freshman guard
Ali Barnes made a pair of free throws with 37 seconds left to play in the second half to force overtime, but the Concord University men's basketball team couldn't pull out the win Saturday as Wheeling Jesuit managed to escape the Carter Center with an 88-82 victory in Mountain East Conference play.
Junior guard
Mike Boyd produced another solid all-around game that saw the Cincinnati, Ohio native go for 19 points, six assists, four rebounds and four steals in 40 minutes played. Boyd went 7-for-14 from the field and 5-for-5 from three-point range.
Freshman guard
Aaron Miller connected on four three-pointers on his way to a career-high 16 points. For the game, Miller was 6-for-11 from the field and 4-for-7 from three-point territory.
Sophomore forward
Taylor Smith and freshman guard
Ali Barnes joined Miller off the bench to score 13 and 11 points, respectively, with Smith grabbing five rebounds and Barnes passing out four assists.
Wheeling Jesuit (12-8, 10-7 MEC) opened up a 20-10 lead over Concord (7-16, 4-13 MEC) through the opening 10 minutes of the game until the Mountain Lions exploded to go on a 33-13 run in the period's final 10 minutes, taking a 43-33 lead into halftime.
Miller provided the bulk of Concord's offense during the comeback with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting including a pair of three-pointers while the Mountain Lions defense forced Wheeling Jesuit into 10 first-half turnovers.
Concord maintained its lead over the Cardinals for the first 15 minutes of the second half until WJU was finally able to obtain its first lead since the 4:35 mark of the first half when Justin Fritts converted a pair of free throws to give Wheeling Jesuit a 66-64 with five minutes to play in regulation.
The final five minutes of the game saw the lead change hands eight times with Wheeling Jesuit coming away with a two-point advantage at 77-75, forcing CU to call a timeout with 45 seconds left.
Out of the timeout, Barnes drove from the top of the key and drew a foul in the paint. He proceeded to knock down a pair of free throws to tie the game at 77-77 at the 37 second-mark in the period. A final three-point attempt by WJU's Andre Harris fell short, sending the game to overtime.
The Cardinals scored the first five points of overtime before Concord responded with five consecutive points of its own off of two foul shots from Boyd and three from Smith to make it an 82-82 contest with one minute to play. However, the Cardinals finished with the game's final six points thanks to a field goal and four free throws to give WJU the six-point win.
The Mountain Lions shot 45.9 percent from the field (28-for-61), 34.6 percent (9-for-26) from three-point range and 81 percent (17-for-21) from the foul line. Concord led Wheeling Jesuit in turnovers forced (13-12), points off of turnovers (18-11) and bench points (47-28).
Other top contributors for Concord included freshman forward
Grant Dickinson with seven points and five rebounds as well as
Paul Byrd, who pulled in seven rebounds to go with seven points and three assists.
Andre Harris went 8-for-15 from the field en route to a 21-point night to pace Wheeling Jesuit.
The loss was Concord's 10th loss of the year by nine points or less.
Concord now hits the road for its final two away contests of the regular season Feb. 13 at Charleston and Feb. 15 at West Virginia State.
