ATHENS, W.Va. – Down 50-31 with 17 minutes left in the contest, the Concord University women's basketball team erased a 19-point deficit to clip West Virginia State, 70-67, Sunday afternoon in Mountain East Conference play at the Carter Center.
CU (1-1, 1-1 MEC) trailed by 16, 45-29, at halftime before finding itself down by three more with 6:54 remaining in the third quarter. The Mountain Lions rattled off an 18-4 run over the next five minutes to trim the deficit to 54-49 with 1:55 left in the third. Junior guard
Maggie Guynn and freshman guard
Jaisah Smith combined for 12 points, and hit Concord's only two three-pointers of the game during the stretch.
Still trailing by six, 61-55, entering the fourth quarter, the Mountain Lions started the quarter on an 11-2 run to take a 66-63 lead with 5:56 remaining. Both teams went cold from the field over the next three minutes until WVSU (0-2, 0-2 MEC) took a lead of 67-66 with 2:21 left.
However, Concord had an answer 58 seconds later as junior guard
Riley Fitzwater scored two of her 26 points in the game. After two defensive stops, Guynn hit two free throws with 14 seconds remaining, and CU forced a long three-pointer at the buzzer that was short to secure the win.
The Mountain Lions held a 16-15 lead after one quarter, but were outscored 30-13 in the second quarter, and faced the 16-point deficit at the intermission.
To go along with her game-high 26 points, Fitzwater added 12 rebounds and eight blocks. Guynn just missed her own double-double with 20 points and eight rebounds. Freshman guard
Maddie Ratcliff came off the bench with 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
In just six minutes of action, senior forward
Tamra Scott had four points, seven rebounds and two blocks.
The Mountain Lions scored 50 of their 70 points in the paint, and shot 49.2 percent (29-for-59) from the field. Defensively, Concord held WVSU to 27.2 percent shooting (25-for-92).
Concord welcomes West Virginia Wesleyan to the Carter Center 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Â
Â
