Concord Seeks First Conference Title Since 1995, Squares Off with Notre Dame

Concord Stats - Notre Dame Stats - Live Audio - Live Stats - Live Video - Complete Game Notes

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - After knocking off West Liberty in the semifinal round of the MEC Tournament in double overtime on a shot with 0.4 seconds left on the clock by senior guard Rob Reed, the Concord University men's basketball team will play for its first conference championship since 1998 Sunday at the Charleston Civic Center when it takes on Notre Dame at 3:30 p.m. for the Mountain East Conference title.

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Jason "Moose" Reed and Steve Cox will have live play-by-play coverage of the game on 97.3 FM locally and online at mywillie.com. Additionally, WVMetronews will have live video coverage with commentators Tony Caridi, Warren Baker and Brad Howe bringing you all the coverage. The Mountain East Conference will provide live in-game statistics as well. To access the live coverage links, follow above, at the top of the page or by clicking here.

MOUNTAIN LION NOTES
Concord made it to the final by knocking off Charleston, 75-61, Friday night before winning the thrilling contest against West Liberty Saturday night.

By defeating Charleston, CU avenged a 92-62 loss to the Golden Eagles just 10 days ago.

After not defeating West Liberty in his four-year coaching career, head coach Kent McBride was able to take down West Liberty twice this season.

The last team to beat thet Hilltoppers twice in one season was the 2007-08 Pitt-Johnstown team.

By winning the conference championship, the Mountain Lions can leave their mark on the MEC.

Additionally, some individuals can also leave their name in the conference tournament record book.

Reed has made 13 three-pointers in this year's postseason.

Reed needs three more triples to break Jamel Morris' tournament record of 13 made three-pointers.

Reed is shooting 13-for-17 from distance in the postseason.

Additionally, senior forward Terry Hopewell can surpass the record for total rebounds in a single MEC Tournament.

Hopewell has 28 rebounds  heading into Sunday, but is chasing West Liberty's Zac Grossenbacher for the record. Grossenbacher had 33 boards in two games this year.

NDC's Ja'Sean Lewis has 35 rebounds this tournament.

Junior guard Aaron Miller needs 13 points to achieve 1,2000 points for his career and become the 24th player in program history to amass 1,200 points for a career.

With five points from Miller, the Stephens City, Virginia naive and Reed can become the first set of Concord teammates to score 500 or more points in a season since Tyrone Anderson and Brian Foster scored 500 or more during the 2006-07 season.

Reed now has 115 made three-pointers on the season and can move into second all-time in single-season three-pointers with his next two made three-pointers.

Both regular season contests between Concord and Notre Dame were tightly contested with CU getting a 99-97 in South Euclid, Ohio while the Mountain Lions edged NDC 85-75 at home in late February.

At home, senior forward Jametrius Wade collected a double-double of 19 points and 16 rebounds and is averaging 16.5 points and 11 rebounds per game in two games versus the Falcons this season. In four games against NDC, Wade is averaging 9.7 rebounds per game.

After Wade and sophomore forward Babe Murphy fouled out of Saturday night's game, McBride turned to junior forward Stephen Thompson to not only provide a spark off the bench, but also shut down the league's top scorer, Seger Bonifant.

While Thompson didn't completely thwart Bonifant's ability to score, the Beckley, West Virginia native made Bonifant earn most of his points from the foul line.

With Thompson in the game, Bonifant scored just six points and only two of those points were from the field.

It was the first time Thompson had seen significant game action since the beginning of February at Glenville State.

Concord and Notre Dame have earned the reputation of high-scoring teams in the MEC, but the Mountain Lions used its defense prowess to its advantage both times this season against NDC.

CU forced  three turnovers over the final 1:18 of the game on the road including two on back-to-back possessions to end the game.

Meanwhile at home, the Maroon and Gray held the Falcons to 28.6 percent shooting in the second half after NDC shot over 51 percent in the first half. It was lowest shooting half of the season for Notre Dame.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
6- CU will be seeking its sixth conference championship dating back to 1934-35.

22-  CU is seeking to win 22 games for the first time since 2003-04, McBride's sophomore season at Concord.

23-  The Concord bench has averaged 23 points per game against the Falcons this season.

SCOUTING NOTRE DAME
The Falcons got to the championship as the sixth-seed by knocking off two top-five nationally-ranked teams in Fairmont State and Wheeling Jesuit.

Notre Dame point guard Tyree Gaiter fell two points short of tying the MEC record of the single-game tournament scoring record as he posted 39 points against Wheeling Jesuit, going a perfect 16-for-16 from the field.

Gaiter is averaging 24.6 points per game while Will Voorhees is averaging 20.9 points per game.

NDC is the only team in the league with two players averaging more than 20 points.

Over his last three games, Ja'Sean Lewis is averaging three blocks per game and has 35 rebounds in three games during the MEC Tournament.