BUCKHANNON, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team rallied from a double-digit second-half deficit to force overtime, but fell to West Virginia Wesleyan, 83-80, Wednesday night in Mountain East Conference action at the Rockefeller Center.
CU (4-10, 2-7 MEC) trailed 55-43 with 10:05 left in the game, but outscored the Bobcats (6-9, 5-4 MEC) 32-18 over the final 10 minutes of regulation to go up 75-73 with seven seconds left after a free throw from senior guard
Trey Brisco. On the ensuing WVWC possession, Concord forced a deep three-pointer, but Wesleyan got an offensive stick back on an air ball as the horn sounded to force overtime.
The Mountain Lions took their first lead of overtime as junior guard/forward
Malik Johnson canned a three-pointer to put Concord up 78-76. However, WVWC scored three straight points to go up 79-78 before Johnson's driving layup with 46 seconds remaining in overtime.
Wesleyan came back with a bucket to go up one before getting two defensive stops and making two free throws to hold off Concord.
In the second-half run, freshman guard
Ethan Heller scored all 10 of his points. Junior forward
Liam Evans scored six of his 11 points in the final 10 minutes while Johnson added five more, but five players scored for CU in the run.
Johnson went for a team-best 20 points—one short of his career best—while adding 12 rebounds for his first double-double of the season.
Sophomore guard
Brandon Kennedy sparked Concord in the first half as he scored 10 points after earning his first career start. Behind Kennedy's performance, the Mountain Lions led 26-23 with 4:33 remaining in the opening half, but trailed 30-28 at halftime. He finished the game with 16 points.
Brisco rounded out the double figure scorers with 15. Concord had four different players, Brisco, Heller, Johnson and Kennedy, make three three-pointers each.
The Mountain Lions hosts Davis & Elkins 4:00 p.m. Saturday at the Carter Center.
