Concord Stats -
Fairmont State Stats -
Live Audio -
Live Video -
Live Stats
ATHENS, W.Va. - The Concord University men's basketball team will open up Mountain East Conference Tournament action against Fairmont State 2:15 p.m. Friday at the Charleston Civic Center in the quarterfinal round.
LIVE COVERAGE
Audio: Jason Reed and Steve will have broadcast the game live on 94.5 "Willie" FM and online at
www.mywillie.com beginning with the pregame show at 2:00 p.m.
Stats: The Mountain East Conference will provide live in-game statistics of Friday's game.
Video: WVMetronews is providing live video of every game throughout the MEC Tournament. Travis Jones and Brad Howe will have the call on the Metronews Channel at
www.wvmetronews.com.
To access any of the live coverage, follow the link at the top of the page or click
here.
RECORDS
CU is 16-12 overall and went 12-10 against MEC foes during the regular season.
Fairmont State enters the MEC Tournament with a mark of 21-7 and 17-5 in the league.
FINISHING HOT
For a third straight week, junior guard
Tommy Bolte was named United States Basketball Writers' Association National Player of the Week.
In two wins for Concord last week over West Virginia State and UVa.-Wise, the Chillicothe, Ohio native averaged 40.5 points per game, shot 48 percent from the field (24-for-50), 60 percent from three-point range (9-for-15) and 92.3 percent (24-for-26) from the foul line in the two games.
In the final six games of the season, Bolte averaged 38.8 points, 7.1 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game.
In that same stretch, Bolte shot 51.3 percent from the field (74-for-144), 46 percent (23-for-50) from three-point range and 91.1 percent (62-for-68) from the foul line.
For his efforts, Bolte was named All-MEC First Team after leading Division II in scoring over the course of the regular season with 31.2 points per game.
Bolte has scored 780 points this season which is the third-most points in a single season for a player at Concord.
Only one other player has scored more than 800 points in a season. Ron Ward tallied 1,021 points during the 1990-91 season in which he played 36 games.
The single-season MEC record for points scored is held by former West Liberty standout Seger Bonifant who netted 893 points during the 2015-16 season.
Bolte is five points per game ahead of NDC's Will Vorhees pace of the 26.8 points per game last season which is the MEC record.
ROLE PLAY
In Concord's two wins last week, three other players averaged double figures.
Senior guard
B.J. Hamlet, who led the MEC in made three-pointers during the season with 89, scored 18.5 points per game in both of the Mountain Lions' wins.
Freshman guard
Darian Peterson notched 11.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game as he nearly added his second career double-double against West Virginia State with nine points and eight rebounds.
Sophomore forward
Trey Brisco added 12 points per game in the two victories.
Heading into the MEC Tournament, Hamlet needs two more three-pointer to become the sixth player in program history to notch 200 three-pointers for his career.
Over the last two games, junior forward
Jafar Musa averaged 7.5 rebounds per game including a career-best nine at West Virginia State.
UNFAMILIAR SURROUNDINGS
Just two current Mountain Lions have played a college game inside the Charleston Civic Center.
Bolte was a freshman during CU's 2016 MEC Championship run.
Bolte played a total of 24 minutes in three games, and also saw action against Charleston in a regular season game in the same building.
Hamlet has played one contest inside the spacious arena--the quarterfinal round of the 2015 MEC Tournament against Wheeling Jesuit.
The Roanoke, Virginia native played nine minutes in that particular game with one shot attempt.
INSTANT ENERGY
In the first game with Fairmont State this season, Concord's bench came up with 33 points in the 91-77 loss.
Freshman forward
Antonio Patterson went for a career-best 16 points as he made all four three-point attempts against FSU.
Peterson added 10 points in the defeat. The second meeting between the two teams, CU's bench was limited to 11 points.
Meanwhile, Fairmont State's bench averaged 26 points in the two contests with Concord.
The Mountain Lions are 8-4 this season when they get at least 20 points from the reserves.
OUR BEST VERSUS THEIR BEST
All season long, Concord has hung its hat on stellar three-point defense.
The Mountain Lions enter the MEC Tournament with the best three-point defense in the MEC (32.5 percent).
Additionally, CU ranks sixth in the region and 27th nationally in three-point defense this season.
On nine different occasions in 2017-18, the Mountain Lions have held an opponent to 30 percent or less from beyond the arc.
Conversely, Fairmont State is one of the best three-point shooting teams in the MEC.
The Fighting Falcons make 11.4 three-pointer per game and shoot 37.1 percent from three-point range.
In two meetings this season, FSU shot 38.8 percent (21-for-54) from distance including shooting 12-for-28 in the January meeting.
Fairmont State is coming off its regular-season finale in which it shot 20-for-42 from three-point range with Jason Jolly make 12 of the triples.
IN-DEPTH LOOK
In two games against FSU this season, the Mountain Lions committed just 17 turnovers including five in the first game.
CU is coming off a game against UVa.-Wise in which they committed a season-low four turnovers versus the Cavaliers.
FSU is tied for the lowest turnover rate in the league (10.3) while Concord is fifth at 12.4 per game.
Bolte averaged 29.5 points per game versus the Fighting Falcons this season including a 39-point output on February 10 as he went over 1,000 career points in the contest.
The teams are tied in aggregate rebounding totals, 72-72.
Fairmont State outrebounded CU 38-31 in January, but the Maroon and Gray returned the favor by outboarding FSU 41-34 at home.
Musa tallied a career-best 10 points the second time around.
Meanwhile, Fairmont State's DJ Stockman averaged 17 points against CU this season.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
3- Bolte collected his third career double-double versus FSU Feb. 10 with 39 points and 10 rebounds.
22- Number of games this season that Hamlet has made multiple three-pointers.
74- Total number of points in the paint for Concord in two games against FSU this season.
FAIRMONT STATE AT A GLANCE
Friday's matchup will pit the two of the four teams that have played for the last two MEC Championships.
Concord won the title in 2016 while FSU lost to West Liberty in 2017.
The Fighting Falcons advanced all the way to the NCAA Division II Championship Game a a season ago.
Fairmont State is one of the most balanced teams in the MEC with five players averaging 10 points per game and seven players scoring at least eight points per game.
Jolly leads FSU with 15.5 points per game. Caleb Davis is the top rebounder for Fairmont State at six per game to go along with 11.4 points per game.
Friday will be the first time Fairmont State plays a neutral site game this season. FSU is just 7-6 away from Joe Retton Arena.
