Concord Stats -
Notre Dame Stats -
Urbana Stats -
Live Audio -
Live Stats -
Live Video -
Complete Game Notes
ATHENS, W.Va. - The Concord University men's basketball team rounds out a three-game road trip at Notre Dame 7:30 p.m. Wednesday before playing inside the Carter Center against Urbana 4:00 p.m. Saturday in a pair of Mountain East Conference games.
LIVE COVERAGE
Audio: Jason Reed and
Steve Cox will have live radio play-by-play coverage of Saturday's game on Willie 94.5 FM and online at www.mywillie.com.
Stats: Live in-game statistics will be available for both games, courtesy of the Concord and Notre Dame Sports Information Departments.
Video: Live streaming video of each game will be provided.
The Mountain Lions are 5-12 overall and are 3-9 against MEC teams. Notre Dame has a record of 6-12 and is 4-8 in the conference. Urbana starts the week at 4-14 overall and tied with CU at 3-9 in the MEC.
BALL CONTROL
Against a team—in Glenville State—that forces nearly 15 turnovers per game, Concord had just 10 turnovers in Sunday's 89-74 loss. Over the last five games, CU has averaged just 9.4 turnovers per game which is 3.5 fewer than the Maroon and Gray averages this season. Freshman guard
Ethan Heller has been at the forefront of Concord handling the ball as he has 22 assists to five turnovers in the last five games. Heller has had at least four assists in all five games while committing one or no turnovers in four of the five contests. Senior guard
Trey Brisco has a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio in the last five games with 16 assists and eight turnovers.
BENCH PRESS
The Concord reserves had more than half of CU's 74 points at Glenville State as it posted 38 combined points led by senior guard
Martin Kelly Jr.'s 12 points and junior forward
Liam Evans' 11 points. It was the highest bench-point total of the season for the Mountain Lions who had previously received 33 points versus Barton and 31 against Davis & Elkins. This season, the Concord reserves are averaging 20.1 points per game. Furthermore, the Mountain Lion bench has scored at least 10 points in 14 of 17 games in 2019-20. At Glenville State, sophomore forward
Cole Meadows added eight points and sophomore guard
Kam Harris posted a career-best seven points.
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
Between Concord's games with Notre Dame and Urbana, only one player on any of the three teams is averaging more than 15 points per game this season—NDC's Levi Frankland at 17.5 points per game. The Mountain Lions have five players averaging between 8.5 points and junior guard/forward
Malik Johnson's team-leading 14.5 points per game. Earlier this season, Johnson paced CU with 21 points at Urbana, tying his career high. In a 79-76 victory over Notre Dame at the Carter Center, Heller's 20 points were a team high for Concord. The Falcons have five players averaging double figures in scoring. Meanwhile, UU has four players averaging between 7.4 and 11.5 points per game.
GLASS SMASH
With a 40-39 edge in rebounds at Glenville State, the Mountain Lions came out ahead in rebounding for the second time in three games. Johnson grabbed seven rebounds while junior forward
David Bea Mulumba added six boards at GSC. In the first matchups of the year, CU outboarded both Notre Dame and UU. At Urbana, the Maroon and Gray were +4 on the glass (39-35) while they held a more decisive edge of 36-24 in the win over the Falcons. Concord and NDC are very similar in rebounding styles. The Falcons are +0.7 for the season while CU is -1.7 in margin. Concord rebounds 72.8 percent of its opponents' misses while Notre Dame collects 71.8 percent of defensive rebounds. All three teams are below 30 percent on the offensive glass this season. However, the Mountain Lions have gone six straight games without allowing double-digit offensive rebounds.
HOMECOMING OF SORTS
Two players—Heller and sophomore guard
Brandon Kennedy—are from Ohio while head coach
Todd May and assistant coach
Trent Howard are graduates of Ohio colleges. Heller, a Thornville native, will be less than three hours away from his hometown when CU takes to the court Wednesday night at Notre Dame. Kennedy, a product of Chillicothe, was raised approximately 2:45 from the NDC campus. May graduated from Ohio University while Howard received both his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Akron, less than an hour from Notre Dame. And finally, Harris returns to the school where he played his freshman year of collegiate basketball. Harris appeared in 12 games last season for the Falcons.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
2- An earlier loss to Urbana was just CU's second to the Blue Knights in 13 all-time meetings.
12- A then-career high in points for Evans in Concord's win over Notre Dame in early December.
54- Concord's combined second-half shooting percentage in the last four games.
NOTRE DAME AT A GLANCE
The injury bug has been harsh to NDC this season as only two players have suited up in all 18 games. Frankland and Jordan Burton, who averages 10.1 points per game, have been the iron Falcons this season. Notre Dame went 2-0 last week as it earned crucial wins over Wheeling and Urbana, both at home. Five of the six wins for the Falcons have come inside Murphy Gymnasium. 2019 All-MEC First Team guard Larenz Thurman has been limited to 12 games this season and is only averaging 12.1 points per game after scoring 16.7 points per game a year ago.
URBANA AT A GLANCE
The Blue Knights have lost four straight games entering the week with a home contest against Glenville State on the horizon. Of the four losses, only one has been decided by less than 10 points, a 95-86 road defeat to West Virginia State. Jordan Bradley is scoring 11.5 points per game while Tehree Horn is posting 11.1 points per game. Urbana is 1-10 away from home this season with the lone win coming back in November against Kentucky Wesleyan. In its 61-58 win over CU earlier this season, Urbana held the Mountain Lions to 31.6 percent shooting.
