ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team shot a sizzling 57.1 percent in the second half as it pulled away from Davis & Elkins for an 80-63 win in a Mountain East Conference game at the Carter Center Saturday afternoon.
Both teams shot 35 percent or less in the first half, but Concord (5-10, 3-7 MEC) found itself leading 36-29 at halftime. After falling behind 8-2 early in the contest, CU held the Senators (5-11, 3-7 MEC) without a point for nearly seven minutes of the first half as it able to grab the lead back.
Leading by as much as 13 points, 36-23, Concord saw D&E finish the opening 20 minutes on a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to seven at the break.
The Mountain Lions immediately came out of the locker room and built their lead right back to double digits less than two minutes into the second half after a three-pointer from sophomore guard
Brandon Kennedy at the 18:09 mark, making the score 41-31.
Concord put even more pressure on Davis & Elkins as it ran its lead up to 19 points, 56-37, after five straight points from senior guard
Martin Kelly Jr. with 13:52 remaining in the contest.
The Senators were able to get trim the CU lead to 12 points on a couple of occurrences with the final one coming at the 9:22 mark of the second half, but the Mountain Lions responded with back-to-back buckets to stretch the advantage back to 16 points before winning comfortably by 17 points.
CU was 16-for-28 from the floor in the second and a perfect 9-for-9 at the foul line. For the game, Concord shot 90.9 percent (20-for-22) from the charity stripe.
Senior guard
Trey Brisco led the offense with 18 points while defensively holding the MEC's third-leading scorer Donte Doleman (19.0 points per game) to eight points on 3-for-13 shooting.
Kelly chipped in 15 points and eight rebounds. Kennedy went for 12 points while sophomore forward
Cole Meadows scored eight of his 10 points at the foul line and grabbed six rebounds.
The Mountain Lions' leading scorer—junior guard/forward
Malik Johnson—was held to nine points, but had five rebounds, a team-leading five assists and two steals.
As a team, Concord recorded a season-best 19 assists on 26 made field goals.
CU travels to Charleston 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Â
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