WHEELING, W.Va. – A 27-14 scoring run by Wheeling Jesuit over the final 10 minutes of the first half was too much for the Concord University men's basketball team to overcome against WJU Saturday afternoon in Mountain East Conference action at the McDonough Center as they lost 90-79.
Over the first five minutes of action, CU (14-8, 10-7 MEC) and the Cardinals (13-8, 9-7 MEC) played evenly as Concord grabbed an early 13-11 advantage with 15:20 remaining in the first half.
The Mountain Lions were able to increase the gap to 23-18 with 10:01 remaining in the first half. Junior guard
Rob Reed scored eight of his career-high 31 points during that time frame.
Wheeling Jesuit opened up an eight-point advantage, 45-37, at halftime as WJU held Concord to four points from the 10:01 mark to the 1:57 mark in the first half. The Cardinals scored the first five points of the second as they maintained a double-digit lead for the rest of the contest.
CU was only able to get the margin of deficit to 10 points once, after a layup by senior guard
Mike Boyd with 12:44 remaining in the game.
Along with Reed's personal-best 31 points, Boyd also tallied 17 points in the defeat as he made all three three-point attempts. Reed also set a career-high in three-pointers made as he connected on six triples in the contest.
Reed has now scored at least 15 points in four straight games.
The Mountain Lions owned edges in points in the paint (26-24) and three-point percentage (52.4-46.4).
Wheeling Jesuit was led by Justin Fritts who finished with 32 points after converting 8-10 tries from three-point range.
Concord will begin a brief two-game home stand 7:30 p.m. Thursday night versus Charleston.
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