Concord Defeated by Wheeling Jesuit, 64-54

Box Score ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University women's basketball team bench tied its highest scoring output of the season, but it wasn't quite enough as the Mountain Lions fell 64-54 to Wheeling Jesuit in Mountain East Conference play Saturday afternoon at the Carter Center.

CU's bench was led by junior guard Melea Smith, who scored 10 points, including three three-pointers.

Sophomore guard Leslie Mack matched Smith's three-point total with three triples of her own to score nine points while fellow reserve freshmen Olivia Morgan and Alley Odell produced three and two points, respectively. 

Junior forward Andrea Bertrand finished with a team-high 16 points on 4-for-6 shooting from the field and an 8-for-12 showing from the foul line for Concord (9-12, 7-10 MEC). She is now just 23 points away from scoring 1,000 for her career. Bertrand also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.

Over the first 11 minutes of the contest, Wheeling Jesuit (11-10, 8-9 MEC) held a nine-point lead, 22-13. The Mountain Lions countered to score eight of the next 11 points to trim the deficit to 24-21 with 5:20 remaining in the first half. During the run, junior guard Rachel Artrip and Smith both connected on  three-pointers while Morgan converted two free throws.

After falling behind by seven points, 28-21, Concord rebounded to hold WJU scoreless over the final four minutes of the half while tallying 10 points of its own, six of which came from Smith and Mack, to take a 31-28 lead into the break.

Concord built its lead up to as many as six points in the second half with 12:35 remaining in the game, but WJU would go on a 7-1 spurt to tie the game up at 42-42 with 10:46 left to play.

Over the next five minutes, the game featured three lead changes and two ties with the Cardinals coming out of the swing up 49-48 at the 5:47 mark. Wheeling Jesuit closed out the game by scoring 15 of the contests final 21 points en route to the 64-54 win.

Artrip joined Bertrand and Smith as the other double-digit scorer for CU with 11 points.

Junior forward Jacqueline Kestner grabbed six rebounds, had one block and two steals. Defensively, senior center Sammi Webster blocked three shots to push her team-leading season total to 22 rejections.

Wheeling Jesuit was led by Breanna Butler, who scored a team-high 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
Concord held advantages of Wheeling Jesuit in bench scoring (24-20), points off turnovers (13-11), offensive rebounds (14-11), blocks (4-3) and steals (12-4).

The Mountain Lions return to the road for the final two times in the regular season against local rivals Charleston and West Virginia State Thursday and Saturday.

At halftime of the women's basketball game, a $5,000 check was presented to the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center at WVU in support of breast cancer research. Concord Director of Athletics Kevin Garrett and women's soccer head coach Stefani Workman were on hand to present the check to Cancer Center representative Thelma Workman. The money donated was from Stefani Workman's Pink Strong campaign.