ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team was unable to keep up the pace with Shepherd in the second half as it lost a Mountain East Conference game 90-74 Thursday night inside the Carter Center.
The teams traded the lead six times and were tied on seven occasions in the first half as senior guard
Tommy Bolte sank a three-pointer ahead of the halftime buzzer to give Concord (9-3, 5-2 MEC) a 34-33 lead at the intermission.
It was part of a late 6-0 run to end the half that saw Bolte tally five of the six points.
The Rams (8-5, 4-3 MEC) scored the first bucket of the second before junior guard
Jair Rodgers tied the game for the eighth time, 36-36, with a layup at the 18:54 mark of the second half. But, Shepherd went on a 14-4 run to grab a 50-40 lead with 13:29 remaining in the game.
Bolte completed a three-point play, and on CU's next possession sophomore guard/forward
Malik Johnson hit a jumper to trim the margin back to seven points.
Still down eight points, 58-50, with 10:08 left in the contest, freshman guard
Brandon Kennedy had a three-point attempt flush around the rim before falling out. On the ensuing Shepherd possession, the Rams were able to knock down a transition three-pointer to go back up double digits.
From there, the Mountain Lions were only able to get the deficit into single digits on three occasions.
Bolte scored a season-high 42 points on 15-for-28 shooting. Johnson supplied 10 points off the bench.
Junior forward
Simun Kovac gobbled up 13 rebounds in the contest with eight coming in the first five minutes of the game.
Concord welcomes Fairmont State to the Carter Center for a 4:00 p.m. matchup Saturday.
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