ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team controlled West Virginia State in a 96-87 win in Mountain East Conference action Saturday afternoon at the Carter Center.
The Mountain Lions (5-3, 3-1 MEC) never trailed and the game was only tied for 1:29 to start as WVSU drops to 4-4 overall and 2-2 in the league.
Concord opened up the game on an 18-5 run as junior guard
Tommy Bolte scored nine early points for CU. Senior guard
B.J. Hamlet also chipped in five points in the first eight minutes of the contest.
A 15-4 spurt from the Yellow Jackets cut Concord's lead to 22-20 with 7:57 remaining in the half. However, the Mountain Lions withstood the surge from WVSU and took a 39-30 lead into halftime.
After scoring 14 points in the first half, Bolte netted 32 points in the second half as CU opened up its lead to as much as 16 points, 69-53, with 7:16 left in the contest.
A quick spurt from West Virginia State got it back to within eight points, 71-63. On the next trip for Concord, sophomore forward
Trey Brisco nailed a three-pointer to open the advantage back to double digits with 5:32 left.
The Yellow Jackets began to extend the game with 1:16 remaining and a series of three-pointers got them back to within six points. But, Bolte was clutch from the foul line in the final minutes of play as he was 9-for-10 at the charity stripe in the final 76 seconds.
Bolte scored 46 points on 14-for-20 shooting from the field and was 16-for-20 at the free-throw line. The Chillicothe, Ohio is now tied with Western State's Ben Beauchamp for most points in a single game this season in Division II. Bolte also finished with nine assists in the contest.
Freshman forward
Trey Shuff came off the bench to provide a career-high 14 points and five rebounds as he was 5-for-7 from the field. Hamlet also broke double digits with 10 points
Freshman forward
Jyles Webster collected a game-best nine rebounds which was also a personal high.
CU shot 51.6 percent from the floor (32-for-62) in the win.
The Mountain Lions play Glenville State at home 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
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