ATHENS, W.Va. – Facing an early second-half deficit of double digits, the Concord University men's basketball team rallied to defeat the University of Charleston 68-63 Thursday night at the Carter Center in Mountain East Conference action.
The Mountain Lions (15-8, 11-7 MEC) fell behind UC (16-8, 11-7 MEC) 31-21 at the 3:05 mark of the first half as the Golden Eagles capped an 11-3 scoring run. But, CU fought back to cut the deficit to 33-28 at halftime as junior guard
Rob Reed scored the final five points of the first half for the Mountain Lions.
However, Charleston opened the second with a quick 5-0 spurt to retake a double-digit lead of 38-28 with 17:38 remaining. The mini run forced head coach
Kent McBride to take a timeout and his team responded by scoring 15 of the game's next 17 points to overtake UC 43-40.
The Mountain Lion run was sparked by Concord's starting frontcourt of junior forwards
Terry Hopewell and
Jametrius Wade as the duo combined for 10 of the 15 points. Once Concord fought back in the game, both teams traded each other basket-for-basket as neither team led by more than six points the rest of the game.
Perhaps, the most important moments of the contest came when Concord was facing a 55-51 deficit with 6:50 left and held the Golden Eagles to one point for nearly four minutes to retake a 58-56 lead with 3:03 left in the game. Two layups from Wade and a step-back three-pointer from Reed were the plays responsible for the seven CU points.
In the closing moments of the game, senior guard
Mike Boyd stepped to the free-throw line to hit all six free-throw attempts to seal the 68-63 win for the Mountain Lions.
For the season, Boyd is 43-of-50 at the free-throw in the final five minutes of games.
Thursday night marked the first time in McBride's career he had beaten Charleston, and it also vaulted the Mountain Lions into a tie fourth in the league standings.
Wade led four Mountain Lions in double figures with 17 points and six rebounds while Reed scored in double figures (16 points) for the fifth straight game and the eighth time in the last nine contests.
Hopewell added 13 points and nine rebounds while Boyd collected eight of his 12 points at the charity stripe.
Entering Thursday's contest, UC was ranked sixth in the D2SIDA regional poll.
After being outrebounded by Wheeling Jesuit Saturday, CU bounced back to own a 35-31 edge on the boards including 11 offensive rebounds that led to 16 second-chance points. The Mountain Lions also had an advantage in points in the paint (36-26).
Charleston was led by Jevonte Hughes who had 13 points and nine rebounds.
Concord will host West Virginia State 4:00 p.m. Saturday and prior to the contest Boyd and senior guard
Paul Byrd will be recognized for their dedication to the team.
Saturday's game is also the annual Pink Game and Play 4Kay to support breast cancer awareness.
Â
