Concord Stats -
West Liberty Stats -
Wheeling Stats -
Live Stats -
Live Video
ATHENS, W.Va. - After a second-straight 1-1 week to start the season, the Concord University women's basketball team puts its 2-2 record up against West Liberty at home 5:00 p.m. Wednesday before traveling to Wheeling 2:00 p.m. Saturday in two Mountain East Conference games.
LIVE COVERAGE
Stats: Both the Concord and Wheeling University Sports Information Department will provide live in-game statistics of the games this week.
Video: Live streaming video is avaiable through both schools. Jason Reed and Steve will be on the call for Wednesday's game versus West Liberty.
RECORDS
The Mountain Lions are one of three teams in the MEC with a 2-2 record.
Like Concord, West Liberty is 2-2, but enters the week on a two-game winning streak after victories over Fairmont State and Frostburg State.
Wheeling has won three of its first four games and stands at 3-1 in the MEC.
KEEP CLIMBING
Senior forward
Riley Fitzwater collected 33 rebounds over two games last week, including 21 at Davis & Elkins—her fifth career game with at least 20 rebounds, but first since February 9, 2019 against West Liberty. With the 33 boards, Fitzwater moved into second place alone in program history in rebounding with 1,073, passing
Jolysa Brown along the way. In the career record book for three-point shooting, junior guard
Maggie Guynn moved into fourth in percentage (37.96) as she passed Meghan Cole (37.94). Senior guard
Keely Lundy made her first four three-pointers of the season by going 4-of-9 last week from behind the arc to move within 0.4 percent of ninth place. Lundy and Guynn combined to go 6-of-12 from three-point range in CU's 74-61 win over West Virginia Wesleyan at home last week.
CLEANING THE GLASS
While Fitzwater is ranked seventh in Division II in rebounds per game with 12.5 after last week's performance, one of Concord's smaller players has been doing some work on the boards too. Junior guard
Gracie Robinson is second on the team in rebounds per game (5.0), and ranks third in the MEC among starting point guards in rebounding, trailing only Notre Dame's Jada Marone (6.0) and West Liberty's Audrey Tingle (8.5). After grabbing seven rebounds in the win over West Virginia Wesleyan and adding another six boards at Davis & Elkins, Robinson will be seeking five or more boards in three straight games for the first time in her career. Last year at WLU, the Wytheville, Virginia native pulled down seven rebounds, but had only one at home against the Hilltoppers in 2019-20.
BENCH PRESS
Keyed by Lundy as well as freshmen guards
Maddie Ratcliff and
Jaisah Smith, the Concord bench is averaging 25.7 points per game this season. The bench has scored at least 22 points in all four games for CU, including 30 points at Davis & Elkins. Smith aided the bench effort against the Senators with a team-best 16 points for her first career double-digit scoring game. The freshmen tandem of Ratcliff (8.3 points per game) and Smith (7.3 points per game) are combining for 15.6 points per game as they are CU's third and fourth-leading scorers behind Fitzwater's 19.0 points per game and Guynn's 14.8 points per game. In 30 games last season, Concord's bench only scored 20 points four times.
HOME SWEET HOME
Dating back to the start of the 2019-20 season, the Mountain Lions are 13-2 at home with the only MEC loss coming to Notre Dame in December 2019. The other loss was in November 2019 to UVa.-Wise. The only two teams in the MEC with better home marks than Concord over the last 15 games are Charleston and Glenville State who are both 14-1. Over the 13 wins, the Mountain Lions have a winning margin of 16.3. Last January 8, CU took down West Liberty, 83-71. Fitzwater went for 22 points and 14 rebounds. In fact, Fitzwater and former CU standout
Madison May outrebounded the Hilltoppers by themselves (27-21). Fitzwater has five career double-doubles against WLU in six games, averaging 13.3 points and 15.5 rebounds per contest.
GRIND IT OUT
Concord and West Liberty have the top two scoring defenses in the MEC. The Hilltoppers are giving up just 65 points per game with CU right behind at 66.0 points per game. Both squads are the only teams in the MEC giving up 35 percent or less from the field. West Liberty checks in at 35.7 percent while Concord ranks 16
th nationally at 32.9 percent. With Fitzwater (6.5 blocks per game) and senior forward
Tamra Scott (four blocks last two games), CU is limiting opponents to 38.1 percent (53-for-139) inside the paint this season. The only team to shoot better than 40 percent on CU in the paint was West Virginia State (41.6 percent).
POTENT POSTS
On Saturday, Fitzwater matches up with reigning MEC Player of the Week in Wheeling's Lilly Ritz. The junior forward leads Division II in rebounding at 16.8 boards per game, and is coming off a 22-point, 25-rebound performance against Fairmont State over the past weekend. At Wheeling last season, Fitzwater went for 13 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks while Ritz had 14 points (on 18 shots), 17 rebounds and eight blocks. It's worth noting, Robinson slid in for 10 rebounds to record her first career double-double of 16 points and 10 boards in the 64-58 Concord loss. At home, the Mountain Lions exacted revenge with an 88-51 victory February 12. Ritz had another stellar game with 13 points and 16 rebounds, but Fitzwater outdueled her post counterpart with 23 points and 17 rebounds.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
5- Number of three-pointers needed by Lundy to become the 11
th player in program history with 100 three-pointers.
16- Average number of assists per game for Concord, third in the MEC.
50- Percentage shot by Concord (28-for-56) in the home win over West Liberty last season.
WEST LIBERTY AT A GLANCE
After losing to Notre Dame and Alderson Broaddus to start the season, WLU has claimed victories over Fairmont State and Frostburg State, and its 54-point win over Frostburg State is the largest winning margin this season in the MEC. Audrey Tingle is one of the best all-around guards in the conference, averaging 13.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 5.8 assist per game. Olivia Belknap's 19.5 points per game leads West Liberty. To counter CU's bench productivity, WLU's Grace Faulk and Karly McCutcheon are combining to average 18.3 points per game this season, but neither have started a game.
WHEELING AT A GLANCE
Not only is Ritz leading Division II in rebounding, but she also ranks top 20 in scoring at 21.8 points per game. At 75.8 points per game, the Cardinals are well-balanced with five players averaging at least 8.5 points per game. Maura Castelluci is scoring 16.0 points per game with Emily Holzopfel (11.8) and Shanley Woods (10.8) also in double figures. Ritz averages over six offensive rebounds per game, aiding the Cardinals in grabbing over 40 percent of its misses—second in the MEC.
