INSTITUTE, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team won their tenth game of the season as they ran past West Virginia State 88-73 at the Walker Convention Center Saturday afternoon in Mountain East Conference play.
Junior forward
Jametrius Wade led the way for the Mountain Lions (10-5, 6-4 MEC) as he posted his first career 20-point, 20 rebound game, recording 24 points and 20 rebounds, a career high in both.
In fact, Wade became just the second player in MEC history to have a 20-20 game, joining Deon Boyce of UVa.-Wise. The Detroit, Michigan native was also the first CU player to tally a 20-20 game since before the 2000-01 season. What may make Wade's rebounding performance the most impressive was that he snatched nine offensive boards.
It was the fourth time this season Wade has recorded a double-double and the second straight game.
After a tightly contested eight minutes that yielded Concord with a lead of 13-11 at the 12:04 mark of the first half, CU went on a 15-2 run to take a lead of 28-14 with 6:22 remaining in the half.
Five different Concord players scored during the run including junior forward
Terry Hopewell, sophomore guard
Aaron Miller, junior guard
Rob Reed, junior forward
Taylor Smith and Wade. Miller led the way with five points.
Going into halftime, Concord led 41-28 as they held the Yellow Jackets (3-14, 3-6 MEC) to 27.6 percent shooting (8-for-29). By halftime, Wade had already recorded 13 points and 11 rebounds.
CU and WVSU began the second half by trading scores. At the 14:45 mark of the second half, the Mountain Lions held a 49-35 lead. However, Concord outscored West Virginia State 20-4 in the next six minutes to hold a 69-39 advantage. The 30-point lead was the biggest for Concord in any game this season.
The Mountain Lions kept the lead above 20 for the majority of the rest of the game as they went on to win by 15 points.
Joining Wade in double figures was Reed (15 points), who recorded 10 or more points for the third consecutive game off the bench. Senior guard
Mike Boyd and Miller contributed 11 and 12 points, respectively.
Concord had its first 50-rebound game as a team of the season as they held a 50-38 advantage on the glass. The Mountain Lions also had edges in assists (16-11), field goal percentage (46.9-35.7), points in the paint (34-16) and points off turnovers (22-18).
With the win, CU has a three-game winning streak which is the longest for Concord since February 9-18, 2013.
The Mountain Lions will look to extend their winning streak to four when they host UVa.-Wise 7:30 p.m. Thursday, the first of five consecutive home games for the Maroon and Gray.
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