SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. – The two seniors on the Concord University men's basketball team made the decisive plays as Concord edged Shepherd for a 77-76 victory Thursday night in a Mountain East Conference game inside the Butcher Center.
Down 76-75 after a Shepherd (11-12, 7-10, MEC) foul shot with 42 seconds left in the contest, senior guard
Tommy Bolte patiently waited for an opening in the defense as he hit a tough shot along the right baseline to give Concord (15-8, 10-7 MEC) the lead with 16 seconds remaining in the contest.
However, to win its first game at SU since February 21, 2015, the Mountain Lions needed one more defensive stop. The Rams had a pass deflect out of bounds with 3.9 seconds remaining. After a timeout, the ensuing in-bounds pass came into Shepherd's Winston Burgess. When Burgess turned to shoot from the right side of the paint, senior forward
Jafar Musa greeted Burgess with a block as time expired to preserve the CU victory. The block was the only one of the game for the Mountain Lions as a team.
The game was tightly contested as neither team led by more than eight points with Shepherd holding a 40-38 halftime lead. The contest also featured nine ties and 15 lead changes.
Concord trailed by five, 72-67, with 3:44 left. A Bolte layup and two foul shots from Musa cut the deficit to one. Bolte hit a three-pointer with 1:51 left, but his triple was answered by Shepherd's Jarrell Jones knocking down his own three-pointer 38 seconds later.
Another Musa free throw tied the game with 1:01 left before Burgess' make at the charity stripe set up the final sequence in the Mountain Lions' win.
Bolte scored 31 points on 12-for-25 shooting while grabbing six rebounds. Junior guard
Jair Rodgers added 18 points. Junior forward
Trey Brisco scored eight of his 10 points in the first half.
Concord went 15-for-17 at the foul line and had just five turnovers while forcing 12 Shepherd turnovers. CU turned the 12 turnovers into 18 points.
The Mountain Lions head to Fairmont State 4:00 p.m. Saturday.
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