Box Score SHEPHERDSTOWN, W. Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team ended its 2013-14 season with an 86-68 loss at Shepherd University Tuesday at the Butcher Center in the opening round of the Mountain East Conference Tournament.
The guard duo of sophomore
Cam Shannon and freshman
Aaron Miller were responsible for over half of the Mountain Lions' points Tuesday night.
Shannon totaled a team-high 20 point on 8-of-16 shooting from the field including a 4-of-9 effort from three-point range. Miller, who also had four steals on defense, nearly matched Shannon with a season-high 19 points of his own after going 8-for-15 from the field and making three three-pointers.
The 20-point performance was Shannon's third such game of the year while Miller's double-digit effort gives him three consecutive games with at least 10 points to end his rookie campaign.
In addition to his offensive production, Shannon also matched sophomore
Terry Hopewell for a Concord-best five rebounds. Hopewell played the majority of the second half with four fouls, but still chipped in 13 points to go with two steals.
Junior guard
Mike Boyd, who earned honorable mention All-MEC honors earlier in the day, played all 40 minutes, scoring eight points while passing out a game-high six assists and making three steals.
The Mountain Lions stormed out to an early 9-2 lead behind three-pointers from Boyd and Miller while Hopewell converting one free throw and hitting a jumper. However, the Rams countered by going on a 29-10 run over the following 10 minutes to grab a 14-point advantage at 31-17 with seven minutes remaining in the period before eventually taking a 41-28 lead into halftime.
Concord cut its deficit to just seven points (49-42) with 14 minutes to play in regulation after opening the final 20 minutes of play on a 14-7 spurt thanks in large part to Miller's nine quick points.
However, Shepherd was once again able to answer Concord's surge by extending its lead to a commanding 16 points (63-47) over the next six minutes. The Mountain Lions trimmed the Rams' lead to nine points on two separate occasions in the final stages of the game, but could get no closer as Shepherd made 4-of-5 field goal attempts and 5-of-7 free throws in the final three minutes on the way to an 86-68 victory.
For the game, Concord shot a respectable 46.8 percent (29-for-62) from the field, but Shepherd shot 50 percent (32-for-64) from the field and hit 77.8 percent of its foul shots (14-for-18). Both teams made eight three-pointers on the night.
The Rams were led by Morgan McDonald, who compiled game-highs of 25 points and 16 rebounds.
Concord ends its season at 8-20 overall. Shepherd improves to 20-9 on the season and will play Glenville State in the second round of the MEC Tournament Friday in Charleston, W. Va.
