Concord Begins MEC Tournament Play Versus Shepherd

Concord Stats - Shepherd Stats - Live Stats - Live Video - Complete Game Notes

ATHENS, W.Va. - For the first time since the 2011-12 season, the Concord University women's basketball team will play a conference tournament game inside the Charleston Civic Center when it takes on Shepherd 2:15 p.m. Wednesday in the opening round of the Mountain East Conference Tournament.

LIVE COVERAGE
Stats: The Mountain East Conference will provide live statistics for the contest Wednesday afternoon.
Video: WVMetronews will carry the game at The Metronews Channel on wvmetronews.com. Andrew Caridi and Mark Martin will have the call of the game.

To view the live coverage, follow the links at the top of the page or click here.

RECORDS
The Mountain Lions are 13-15 this season and posted a conference mark of 9-13 to earn the ninth seed.

Shepherd is the eight seed after going 14-14 overall and 10-12 in the MEC.

DYNAMIC ALL-CONFERENCE DUO
It was announced Monday that freshman forward Riley Fitzwater and sophomore forward Madison May were both selected as All-MEC Second Team performers.

Fitzwater finished the regular season leading Division II in field goal percentage (70.3), was fourth in blocked shots among all Division II players (3.96 per game) and seventh in the rebound (11.6 per game).

Fitzwater posted 17 double-doubles during the season which tied West Liberty's Marissa Brown for most in the MEC.

Meanwhile, May had a breakthrough season.

After averaging just over four points as a freshman, the Athens, West Virginia native led CU in scoring with 16.5 points per game.

Additionally, May was top 10 in the MEC in both rebounding (7.7 per game) and field goal percentage (51.3).

PATIENTLY WAITING
After finishing 11th and 12th in the MEC the last two seasons, the Mountain Lions jumped up ninth in the conference standings.

Concord surpassed its last two years' win total combined. CU won just 12 combined games during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 season, but won 13 games this season.

Part of the success came from the Mountain Lions leading the league in field goal percentage (46.6 percent) and setting the top mark for field goal defense (38.0 percent).

CU's field goal offense is currently tied for the top all-time MEC mark set by Fairmont State during the 2015-16 season.

The last time Concord played inside the Charleston Civic Center was a double overtime defeat in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference semifinals to Glenville State in 2012.

To put it in perspective, CU's 2017-18 senior class of forward Danielle Catron, Heather Chapman and Lindsey Overbey were sophomores in high school. Concord's two all-conference players of May and Fitzwater were in seventh and eighth grade in middle school.

The only Concord players to play inside the Charleston Civic Center that will dress for CU Wednesday are Fitzwater, who won a Class A high school state championship in 2016 with Gilmer County, May and junior forward Courtney White who made the state tournament with PikeView in 2013 and freshman forward Abigail Gwinn who played against Lincoln County in the Little General Shootout last season.

TOP MARKS
Ahead of the conference tournament, Fitzwater is approaching two MEC records.

The Glenville, West Virginia native needs four blocks to break single-season conference record for blocks.

The current mark is held by former West Virginia State rim protector Asia Greenleaf who had 114 blocks during the 2013-14 season.

Additionally, Fitzwater is ahead of current Urbana standout Sylvia Hudson's field goal percentage mark of 63.3 percent that was set last season.

STINGY DEFENSE
Concord locked up the top field goal defense in the MEC by holding UVa.-Wise to 27.6 percent from the field in the regular season finale including 17.5 percent in the opening half (7-for-40).

It was the second time in the last three games Concord held an opponent to less than 30 percent from floor after limiting Urbana to 29.7 percent in a 75-49 win February 17.

Overall, the Maroon and Gray held opponents to 35 percent or less from the field 10 times this season, and allowed a field goal percentage of 45 percent or better just four times.

INSIDE THE REGULAR SEASON GAMES
Concord fell twice to Shepherd during the regular season.

At Shepherd, the Mountain Lions lost 78-66 while at home SU escaped with a 76-72 overtime win.

At Shepherd, Catron led CU in scoring with 14 points while Chapman added 12 points, six rebounds and four steals.

May just missed a double-double with nine points, eight rebounds to go along with four blocks.

Shepherd's Morgan Arden scored a single-game school record with 40 points including seven three-pointers.

Kari Lankford nearly had a double-double with 11 rebounds and eight assists while also collecting five steals.

In the home defeat, Fitzwater scored 16 points and grabbed 14 rebounds after being held to eight points and five rebounds at Shepherd. May led the Mountain Lions with 21 points and nine rebounds.

At the foul line, May--who leads the MEC in free throw attempts with 195--was 11-for-13 versus Shepherd.

As a team, Concord was 23-for-27 at the foul line in the February meeting with the Rams.

Once again, Arden led Shepherd with 35 points.

Freshman Sydney Clayton collected her second career double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds.

In both meetings this season, the Maroon and Gray held Shepeherd's second-leading scorer Kayla Tibbs in check.

Averaging 11.3 points for the season, Tibbs was held to to 5-for-30 from the field and 2-for-13 from three-point range against Concord.

DOWN TO THE WIRE
Over the last six meetings between Concord and Shepherd, there's been no shortage of drama.

The teams have split the meetings at three games each.

Of those six contests, four have been decided by four points or less.

While the Rams swept two regular season meetings this season, the Mountain Lions won both games a year ago by scores of 72-69 and 67-58.

During the 2015-16 season, Concord edged the Rams at home 90-86, but fell at Shepherd 75-72.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
6- Years since Concord played inside the Charleston Civic Center.

22-  Combined ties and lead changes between Concord and Shepherd on February 8.

36- CU held Shepherd to 36.5 percent shooting in the second game this season.

SHEPHERD AT A GLANCE
Arden was selected to the All-MEC First Team during Monday's all-conference announcement and was in the running for MEC Player of the Year.

Arden is second in the league in scoring at 21.9 points per game and first in three-point percentage (47.1 / 56-for-119).

As a team, the Rams have the best three-point defense in the MEC, holding teams to 28.9 percent from beyond the arc.

Lankford ranks in the top 10 in the MEC in both assists  (4.1) and rebounds (7.3).