WHEELING, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team dropped a road contest to the number two team in the nation, Wheeling Jesuit 77-64, Saturday afternoon at the McDonough Center in Mountain East Conference action.
Senior forward
Terry Hopewell recorded his 11
th double-double of the season with 10 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Mountain Lions (16-8, 11-7 MEC). Fellow senior forward
Jametrius Wade led Concord in scoring with 14 points.
Both teams struggled to find its footing early on as Concord forced WJU (24-1, 17-1 MEC) into five turnovers in the first five minutes of the game, but CU couldn't capitalize as it only hit 4-of-11 shot during that span. At the first media timeout, Concord led 8-4.
The Cardinals jumped out to a 19-13 lead with 8:29 left in the first half. Concord steadily chipped away at the deficit before a three-pointer by junior guard
Michael Sanchez with 3:46 remaining in the first half made it 26-25 Wheeling Jesuit.
As WJU had run its lead back to five points, junior guard
Cam Shannon scored three of his 11 points right before halftime to make it a 33-31 game at the break with the Cardinals leading.
Wheeling Jesuit opened the second half on a 12-3 run to take a 45-34 lead with 16:05 left in the contest. Concord was only able to cut the deficit to single digits once more as it fell by 13 points.
Senior guard
Rob Reed scored 10 points in the game to push his season point total over 500 for the season. Reed becomes the first player since Javaughn Manuel scored 503 points in 2011-12. Reed also added eight boards.
Junior guard
Aaron Miller can also score 500 points this season with 83 more this season. Miller finished 11 points Saturday.
With just four games left in the regular season, the Mountain Lions will play three of four at the Carter Center beginning with Urbana 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
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