WHEELING, W.Va. – Behind career nights from junior forward
Trey Brisco and sophomore guard/forward
Malik Johnson, the Concord University men's basketball team advanced to the Mountain East Conference Tournament Semifinals with a 74-62 win over Charleston at WesBanco Arena Friday night.
Concord will face top seed West Liberty 6:00 p.m. Saturday back at WesBanco Arena.
The Mountain Lions (20-9) led for over 38 minutes in the game. After giving up the first basket of the contest to UC (20-9), Concord went on an 18-5 run to take an 18-7 lead at the 13:24 mark of the first half. The scoring in threes as Johnson buried three early three-pointers, junior guard
Jair Rodgers hit three foul shots, and Brisco converted an old school three-point play while also draining his own triple.
Concord maintained a lead of at least six points throughout the remainder of the first half, and senior guard
Tommy Bolte's three-pointer with 1:48 left in the first half gave the Mountain Lions a 40-31 lead at halftime.
Out of the locker room, CU worked its lead up to 12 points, 50-38, after a Rodgers three-pointer with 14:53 left.
Still up 12 points at the 10:39 mark of the second half, Concord watched Charleston rip off six straight points to close with 59-53 with 7:06 left. However, seven of the next nine points belonged to CU as Rodgers scored the final five points of the quick burst.
Holding a 66-55 lead, the Mountain Lions never let UC get the lead back into single digits over the final five minutes of the contest.
Johnson finished the night with a career-best 21 points on 8-for-11 shooting while knocking down 4-of-6 three-point attempts. Brisco added a season-high 21 points, also on 8-11 shooting. The Stephens City, Virginia native connected on all four three-point attempts.
But, perhaps Brisco's most important contribution of the night was holding UC's leading scorer Drew Rackley to seven points on 3-for-16 shooting. Coming into Friday, Rackley was averaging 20.3 points per game.
Rodgers added 17 points. Bolte was held to nine points, but had seven assists.
Junior forward
Simun Kovac pulled down a game-best nine rebounds.
CU shot 52.8 percent (28-for-53) from the field while limiting the Golden Eagles to 41.9 percent (26-for-62).
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