SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – The Concord University men's basketball team was unable to keep pace with Notre Dame late in the second half as it lost 88-79 at Murphy Gymnasium Thursday night in Mountain East Conference play.
CU (16-9, 11-8 MEC) fell behind 26-9 halfway through the first half, but staged a 30-11 run over the final 10:35 of the first half to grab a 39-37 lead at halftime. Senior guard
Tommy Bolte and sophomore guard/forward
Malik Johnson combined for 22 of the 30 points.
The first eight minutes of the second half featured six ties and four lead changes before NDC (19-6, 15-4 MEC) pushed its lead to five, 65-60, with 10:48 left in the game. However, the Mountain Lions scored 10 of the next 16 points to claw back within 71-70 at the 6:48 mark after a three-pointer from junior guard
Jair Rodgers.
But, the next eight points in the contest belonged to the Falcons as they made two free throws and followed it up with back-to-back three-pointers to grab a 79-70 edge with 5:06 remaining. CU was able to trim the deficit back to four points, 83-79, after two foul shots a jumper from Johnson.
With under two minutes to play, Notre Dame's Will Vorhees made a jump shot and a three-pointer on consecutive possessions to give NDC its final margin of victory.
Bolte finished with a team-best 26 point as all his points came in the final 28 minutes of the contest. The Chillicothe, Ohio native also dished out nine assists while committing just one
turnover.
Johnson was one point shy of his career high as he tallied 19 points on 7-for-14 shooting. Junior forward
Simun Kovac came off the bench to supply 12 points and eight rebounds. Junior forward
Trey Brisco added 10 points.
The Mountain Lions travel to Urbana for a 4:00 p.m. start Saturday.
Â
