Concord Faces Off With Charleston in MEC Quarterfinals

Concord Stats - Charleston Stats - Live Audio - Live Stats - Live Video - Complete Game Notes

ATHENS, W.Va. - The Concord University men's basketball team starts the Mountain East Conference Tournament against Charleston in the quarterfinal round 8:15 p.m. Friday at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling, West Virginia.

LIVE COVERAGE
Audio: Jason Reed and Steve Cox will have live play-by-play coverage of the game on 94.5 "Willie" FM and streaming online at www.mywillie.com
Stats: The Mountain East Conference will provide live statistics for Friday night's game.
Video: WVMetronews in conjunction with the MEC will provide live streaming video.

RECORDS
CU completed the regular season with a record of 19-9 and 14-8 in the conference after an 83-72 win over UVa.-Wise.

Charleston finished the regular season one game better than Concord, both overall and in the conference with marks of 20-8 and 15-7.

800 CLUB
Senior guard Tommy Bolte led the offensive output for the Mountain Lions in the victory at UVa.-Wise as he scored 30 points, giving him 15 30-point games this season. Furthermore, it put Bolte over the 800-point mark for a second straight season with 813 through 28 games. The Chillicothe, Ohio native is the only player in program history with two 800-point seasons after scoring 859 in 2017-18. And he's just the third player to record 700 or more points in two different years, joining Lewis Muse and Ron Ward. Since the turn of the decade, Bolte is the only player in all of Division II to have back-to-back 800-point seasons.

ONE FOR THE AGES
Part of Bolte's 800-point season came in a double overtime win at Charleston January 23 when he scored 65 points which were the most points in a single game since 1977. In the contest, Bolte scored 50 of his 65 points after halftime and 19 of his 25 made field goals against the Golden Eagles came in the paint. In CU's first win of the season over Charleston—a 106-100 overtime victory—Bolte didn't quite have 65 points, but he did have a double-double of 31 points and 10 assists. Over his last five games against Charleston, Bolte is averaging 36.4 points per game while shooting 59.6 percent from the field.

NO LEAD IS SAFE
In the two previous matchups between Concord and Charleston, there's been a combined 21 ties and 25 lead changes with 19 of those coming in CU's overtime win in late November. And when Concord has been down late this season against the Golden Eagles this season, it has come back to force extra time with UC. At home, junior guard Jair Rodgers sank a three-pointer with six seconds left to send the game to overtime. In the road win at Charleston, sophomore guard/forward Malik Johnson converted a layup with 15 seconds left in the first overtime to force a second extra session. Overall, the Mountain Lions have nine game-tying or go-ahead shots in the final minute of regulation or overtime this season from six different players. Rodgers had a go-ahead four-point play with 1.8 seconds left against West Virginia State last week as CU held on for a 75-71 win to go along with his three-pointer against UC. Johnson has the aforementioned layup at Charleston. Bolte had two such shots at West Liberty and an eventual game-winning layup at Shepherd. Sophomore forward David Bea Mulumba made two baskets under one a minute left to go against Bluefield State. The final occurrence was a game-tying three-pointer from freshman guard Brandon Kennedy in the first overtime at West Liberty.

WE'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE
The last time the Mountain Lions won the MEC Tournament Championship was in 2016 when they defeated Charleston, West Liberty and Notre Dame along the way. When CU began its quest then, it played Charleston in the 4/5 game with the exception this year being Concord is the fifth seed. If the Maroon and Gray were to advance to Saturday's semifinals, they would face the winner of the West Liberty and Wheeling Jesuit. Another potential similarity to the 2015-16 squad was that team made 304 three-pointers. Concord needs seven three-pointers to reach 300 for this season. Along with the 2015-16 team, the 1990-91 Mountain Lions made a school record 316 three-pointers—another conference championship team.

PUTTING THE BALL THROUGH THE HOOP
Charleston is the third-highest scoring team in the MEC at 87.4 points per game while CU is ranked fifth in the league in scoring at 87.2. However, each team puts the ball in the bucket a little differently. As mentioned, the Mountain Lions rely on the three-pointers as they make 10.5 three-pointers per game, led by Rodgers' national-leading 4.0 three-pointers per game. Concord also relies on its league-leading 80.9 free throw percentage which also ranks fourth in Division II. Meanwhile, Charleston uses its post players led by Lamont McManus to score the ball. The Golden Eagles are fourth in the county in field goal percentage (52.5) with McManus sitting second in Division II in field goal percentage (67.0). Devon Robinson shoots 61.4 percent while Adam Traore is a 57.1 percent shooter. Conversely, UC is last in the conference in made three-pointers per game (7.1).

GET READY TO REBOUND
Friday night's game features two of the best rebounding teams in the MEC with Charleston sitting second at +6.2 in rebound margin while Concord is fourth at +3.5. The Mountain Lions were outrebounded by three (32-29) in the first game, and UC held a 43-37 advantage in the second contest. CU is 4-5 when getting outrebounded this season, but two of those wins are against Charleston. Junior forward Simun Kovac enters the contest with three straight double-doubles and double-digit rebound contests in seven of his last nine games. Kovac is third in the MEC in rebounds (9.6) while UC's Robinson is fourth (9.3). In Saturday's win at UVa.-Wise, Rodgers had a career-best nine rebounds while Kovac led  the way with 13 boards.

CHARLESTON AT A GLANCE
Drew Rackley was the Golden Eagles representative on the All-MEC First Team as he finished the regular season scoring 20.3 points per game, sixth in the MEC. Rackley averaged 20 points against CU this season. In the first game this season, the UNC Asheville transfer netted 23 points, but was only 8-for-19 from the floor as CU's junior forward Trey Brisco was the primary defender. Charleston was just 8-5 away from the Wehrle Center this season, but three of those losses came in overtime with a fourth coming by two points against Malone. The Golden Eagles have five players averaging double figures as McManus, Traore, Josh Floyd and Robinson are all above points. Point guard Seth O'Neal isn't far off at 9.1 points per contest. In each game with Concord this season, the Golden Eagles have led by double digits in the first half. UC opened up a 14-point lead at CU and led by as much as 12 points in Charleston.