Concord Hosts Notre Dame, Urbana

Concord Stats - Notre Dame Stats - Urbana Stats - Live Audio - Live Video - Live Stats (Notre Dame) - Live Stats (Urbana) - Complete Game Notes

ATHENS, W.Va. - The Concord University men's basketball team concludes its home stand with two games, Sunday and Tuesday, as they welcome Notre Dame College 4:00 p.m. Sunday before playing host to Urbana 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

LIVE COVERAGE
The Concord University Sports Information Department will provide live streaming video and live statistics for both games. Meanwhile, Jason "Moose" Reed and Steve will have radio play-by-play of both contests at 97.3 "Wille" FM and also streaming on www.mywillie.com. To access the live coverage links, follow at teh top of the page or click here.

MOUNTAIN LION NOTES
The Mountain Lions are 5-7 overall this season and 1-5 in the Mountain East Conference.

NDC enters the contest Sunday winners of seven games in a row. The Falcons are 10-2 overall and 4-2 in the league.

Urbana has posted a record of 6-6 and a a 2-2 mark in the MEC.

GETTING BACK ON TRACK
CU enters Sunday looking to snap a brief two-game losing streak after falling to Shepherd and Fairmont State.

Concord fell 87-74 to Shepherd before nationally-ranked FSU pulled away late against the Mountain Lions to earn a 99-81.

CU stayed close with Fairmont State through the first 30 minutes, but the Fighting Falcons used a 12-0 run halfway through the second half.

Senior guard Michael Sanchez scored a season-high 17 points versus FSU and is averaging 16.5 points in the first two games of 2017.

Meanwhile, Miller is averaging 19 points in the new year after pouring in 25 poitns versus Fairmont State.

ONE AND DONE
After winning the battle on the boards just three times through nine games, the Mountain Lions have outrebounded Bluefield State, Shepherd and Fairmont State in the last three games.

The success on the boards is attributed to Concord's ability to limit offensive rebounds.

Heading into Sunday, CU is ranked first in the conference in defensive rebounding percentage as it is grabbing 75.5 percent of the opponents' misses.

Concord limited Fairmont State, the league's top offensive rebounding team (13.3 offensive rebounds per game) to 10 boards as it outboarded the Fighting Falcons by 10 (42-32).

Fairmont State entered the game with a rebounding margin of +4.7.

Another big reason for Concord climbing the ranks in defensive rebounding is the emergence of freshman forward Patrick Eugene.

Eugene is grabbing 11 rebounds per game since being inserted into the starting lineup three games ago and of the 33 rebounds he has collected over that time 16 have been on the offensive glass.

With 11 rebounds against Fairmont State, Eugene became the first CU newcomer to have 10 or more rebounds in multiple games in a single season since Terry Hopewell in the 2013-2014 season.

CONNECTING AT THE LINE
 Against Fairmont State, Concord shot 90 percent (18-for-20) at the free throw line as Miller led the effort with a 10-for-11 showing.

The last time Concord shot at least 90 percent at the charity stripe was against Urbana on November 25, 2013 when it went 28-for-30 in a 73-66 win.

After shooting less than 70 percent at the foul line over the first three games, CU has shot at least 80 percent at the foul line in four of the last nine games.

Overall, the Mountain Lions are second in the league in free-throw shooting at 75.0 percent.

Individually, Miller is fourth  at 89.2 percent (33-for-37), but it's been a collective team effort for CU as three other players are shooting better than 75 percent from the foul line with at least 20 attemps: Sanchez (19-for-23 / 82.6 percent), senior guard Cam Shannon (23-for-26 / 88.5 percent) and senior forward Stephen Thompson (30-for-39 / 76.9 percent).

RUNNING AND GUNNING
Excluding last season's MEC Championship game between Concord and Notre Dame, the Mountain Lions have gotten into high-scoring affairs with the two MEC schools from Ohio.

In eight of the last nine meetings combined, CU is averaging 90.2 points per game and reached the century mark in last year's road victory at UU.

Miller averaged 19.0 points per game in five meetings with teams from Ohio last season as he shot 58.9 percent from the field (33-for-56) and 48.5 percent from three-point range (17-for-35).

Additionally, the Stephens City, Virginia native averaged 27 points in two regular season meetings with NDC including a 29-point effort on the road as he established a career-high seven three-pointers.

GROUNDING THE FALCONS
The Mountain Lions were able to pick three wins over Notre Dame last season including the game that lifted Concord to the MEC Tournament Championship.

CU's ability to get wins over the Falcons came in part because it halted the offense for Notre Dame.

In a home win, Concord limited the Falcons to 28.6 percent in the second half after NDC shot 51.4 percent in the first 20 minutes.

The story of the MEC Championship game was very similar as the Falcons shot 40 percent in the first half and was limited to 30 percent in the second half.

CU won the rebounding battle in two of three games last season, and will continue to win the rebounding battle as it has done over the last three games this season.

The Falcons are the second-best rebounding team in the league at 41.8.

SCOUTING NOTRE DAME
Notre Dame's success on the boards comes as a product of the frontcourt duo of Ja'Sean Lewis and Will Vorhees.

The two, 6-8 forwards for NDC are in the top five in the MEC in rebounding.

Vorhees is third, averaging 11.3 boards per game. Meanwhile, Lewis is fourth (10.8).

Not only do the Falcons have two of the best rebounders in the MEC, they also have two of the best scorers in Vorhees and guard KT Taylor.

Vorhees leads the conference in scoring (27.9) while Taylor is second (22.3). Vorhees (4.2) and Lewis (3.9) combine to average over eight offense rebounds per game.

Lewis is the top assist getter for NDC and one of the best in the MEC.

Lewis averages 5.2 assists per game, fourth best in the MEC, and is the only forward in top 12 in the MEC in assists.

SCOUTING URBANA
Third-year head coach Rob Summers has already surpassed Urbana's win total from a season ago of two and has nearly matched the last two  year's win total of eight.

Urbana is the third-highest team in the league at 88.1 points per game.

While Urbana doesn't have anybody in the top 10 in the MEC in scoring, the Blue Knights have three players averaging at least 15 points per game in Jahmere Howze (17.4), DeQuan Abrom (15.8) and Carlas Jackson (15.2).

Charles Sweatt-Washington shoots the ball at a 58.8 percent clip (50-for-85), third in the MEC. Abrom isn't far behind at 55.5 percent (66-for-119), sixth in the conference.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
0- The Mountain Lions have never lost to Urbana in six previous meetings.

13- Combined rebounding margin for Concord in its last two games.

30- CU has held NDC under 30 percent shooting in the second half in each of the last two meetings.