ATHENS, W.Va. – A layup from junior forward
Riley Fitzwater with 4.7 seconds remaining in overtime pushed the Concord University women's basketball team past Urbana, 92-90, Saturday afternoon in a Mountain East Conference game inside the Carter Center.
Leading for nearly the entirety of the game, Concord (12-7, 9-5 MEC) needed a layup from sophomore guard
Maggie Guynn to tie the game at 83-83 with four seconds left to force overtime.
Urbana (12-8, 8-6 MEC) stormed out to a three-point edge in the first 54 seconds of overtime as it scored four of the first five points. However, the Mountain Lions got four consecutive free throws from sophomore guard
Gracie Robinson to pull ahead, 88-87, with 2:06 left in overtime.
After UU tied the game at 88-88 with 53 seconds left, Guynn calmly sank two more foul shots. Again Urbana, though, had an answer with a layup with 22 seconds remaining. On the ensuing CU possession, senior forward
Madison May lobbed a pass into Fitzwater who fought off a double team and scored the decisive bucket with time winding down. Out of an Urbana timeout, Concord's defense forced a tough shot from Tyra James that hit off the side rim.
The Mountain Lions raced out to a 21-9 lead after the first quarter, and led by as much as 23 points, 42-19, at the 2:29 mark of the second quarter after a three-pointer by freshman guard
Jazz Blankenship. CU settled for a 42-28 halftime lead.
Urbana's late second-quarter surge propelled it to a 32-point third where the Blue Knights were able to cut the Concord lead to four, 64-60. From there, neither team led by more than seven points over the remainder of the game.
May posted 25 points and 11 rebounds for her 10
th double-double of the season. Of the 25 points, May scored 21 after halftime. Fitzwater got to 20 points with the late bucket and added 12 rebounds for her 11
th double-double of the year.
Robinson poured in 15 points while Guynn did a little bit of everything with 14 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Junior forward
Keely Lundy finished one point shy of a double-double with nine points and a career-best 11 rebounds.
James scored 30 points to pace the Blue Knights.
With four players having eight or more rebounds, CU owned a decisive 53-31 rebounding margin.
Concord shot 46.5 percent (33-for-71) for the game while UU was at 41.0 percent (34-for-83).
The Mountain Lions play host to Bluefield State 5:30 p.m. Monday.
Â
Â
Â
