WHEELING, W.Va. – The Concord University women's basketball team fell in heartbreaking fashion in the Mountain East Conference Tournament Semifinals to Glenville State, 70-68, Saturday afternoon inside WesBanco Arena.
Despite turning the ball over 31 times, Concord (21-9) held Glenville State (25-5) to 31.2 percent shooting, and 40 points below its season average.
The Mountain Lions trailed just once in the first half—3-2—and led 36-30 at halftime behind a first-half double-double from junior forward
Riley Fitzwater (12 points, 10 rebounds) and 13 more points from senior forward
Madison May.
CU fended off a Glenville State lead until the Pioneers took a 44-43 edge with four minutes left in the third quarter. With the score tied at 45-45, GSC outscored Concord 9-5 in the final 3:36 of the third to go up 54-50 after three quarters.
The Pioneers extended their lead to a game-best nine points, 61-52, two minutes into the fourth. However, CU responded to get the deficit down to 64-61 with 4:17 remaining in the game. Sophomore guard
Maggie Guynn started the rally with a three-pointer before May made it a one-possession game.
With GSC clinging to the three-point advantage, both teams went cold on the scoreboard. Fitzwater finally broke up the scoreless stretch with two free throws at the 1:34 mark.
The next three combined possessions for each side resulted in made buckets as May got Concord back within a point, 66-65, with 36 seconds remaining. The Pioneers, though, had an answer 21 seconds later. On the ensuing CU possession, Glenville State forced a turnover and made two foul shots to seal the game.
Junior forward
Keely Lundy hit a three-pointer in the final second of the game for the final margin of victory.
Fitzwater's final double-double numbers ended up at 21 points and 16 rebounds to go with four blocks. The Glenville, West Virginia native finished the MEC Tournament by shooting 17-of-19 from the field (89.4 percent), an MEC Tournament record. The existing record was by West Liberty's Kierra Simpson who shot 73.9 percent in 2015.
Guynn threw in 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting.
May finished her career by scoring 21 points. Early in the third quarter, the Athens, West Virginia native became the second-leading scorer in program history with 1,788 points. And taking the floor on Saturday, May also tied the program record for games played with
Emily Boothe at 116 games. Boothe set the record last season. Additionally, May closed her career by finishing in the top five of seven different statistical categories at CU.
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