Concord Readies for Fairmont State, Frostburg State

Concord Stats - Fairmont State Stats - Frostburg State Stats - Live Stats - Live Video - Complete Game Notes

ATHENS, W.Va. - The Concord University women's basketball team swings back into action 5:00 p.m. Wednesday at Fairmont State before returning to the Carter Center to host Frostburg State 2:00 p.m. Saturday in a pair of Mountain East Conference contests.

LIVE COVERAGE
Stats: The Concord and Fairmont State University Sports Information Departments will provide live in-game statistics of both contests this week. 
Video: Live streaming video is available for each game this week. Jason Reed and Steve Cox will be on the call of Concord's game versus Frostburg State. 

RECORDS
The Mountain Lions are 3-2 after a 68-56 win over West Liberty last Wednesday.

Fairmont State is 2-4 after a win against Davis & Elkins Monday.

After winning its first two games of the season, Frostburg State starts the week on a four-game losing streak with a mark of 2-4.

HAVE A NIGHT
In the victory against West Liberty, senior forward Riley Fitzwater posted 30 points and 15 rebounds for her fourth straight double-double of the season, and the 53^rd of her career. Wednesday was the second career 30-point game for the Glenville, West Virginia native and her first since February 2018 against Notre Dame at home. Over the last four seasons, Concord has had 13 30-point individual performances, and in the previous 11 seasons before that CU only had 13 such games. After the 30-point outburst, Fitzwater moved to within three points of passing Kama Shaar for eighth on the all-time scoring list at CU as she now has 1,366 points for her career. Additionally, Fitzwater is now four blocks away from being the only active women's player in any division of NCAA with 1,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 400 career blocks.

ON IN RELIEF
Freshman guard Jaisah Smith received her first career start against West Liberty, but it was fellow freshman guard Maddie Ratcliff that came off the bench and provided a spark for the Mountain Lions. Ratcliff tossed in a career-best 15 points to go with single-game career highs in rebounds (six) and steals (four). Among MEC freshmen, Ratcliff is third in the conference in scoring behind Fairmont State's Alyssa DeAngelo and Wheeling's Shanley Woods who are both averaging 11.6 points per game. Ratcliff is averaging 9.6 points per game in 2021. Additionally, Ratcliff has at least two steals in three straight games, and is the team leader with nine takeaways this season.

GUYNNING TIME
Junior guard Maggie Guynn starts the week as the second-leading scorer for Concord at 13.8 points per game, and is 16^th in the MEC in scoring. For the season, Guynn has scored 69 points, but has done the bulk of her damage after halftime this season. The Pearisburg, Virginia native is averaging 8.8 points per game in the second halves of contests in 2021, including scoring 14 second-half points versus West Virginia Wesleyan, and adding another 13 points in the 19-point comeback win over West Virginia State to start the home season. Additionally, five of Guynn's six three-pointers for the season have come in the second halves of games.

SHOOTERS PARADISE
Going back to the start of the 2018-19 season, Concord is 4-2 at Joe Retton Arena, the site for Wednesday's game. CU opened up the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons at the MEC-PSAC Challenge hosted by FSU as well as playing Fairmont State in an MEC game. Over the last six games at Joe Retton Arena, CU has shot the ball 43 percent or better in five contests—including setting the MEC single-game team record for field goal percentage against FSU last February as CU hit 64.9 percent of its shots (Concord reset the record against Glenville State in the regular season finale in 2019-20 at 66.2 percent). Last season in three games at Joe Retton Arena, junior guard Keely Lundy shot 68.4 percent (13-for-19) and averaged 11.6 points. Over her last four games at Fairmont State, Guynn is averaging 16.7 points per game while shooting 56.0 percent (23-for-41) from the floor.

STIFLING DEFENSE
Concord starts the week with the MEC's best field-goal defense (33.1) which also ranks 17^th in Division II. CU is giving up 64.0 points per game which is second best in the conference. The Mountain Lions are going up against the 11^th and 12^th ranked field-goal percentage offenses in the MEC in Fairmont State and Frostburg State. Frostburg State is making just 37.3 percent of its shots while Fairmont State is hitting 36.8 percent from the field in 2021. The Mountain Lions are also coming off forcing a season-best 21 turnovers that also resulted in 10 steals. Ratcliff paced the effort with four steals versus West Liberty, but Lundy also recorded three steals. Additionally, the guard tandem of junior Gracie Robinson and sophomore Ashton Funderburg forced the MEC assist leader, WLU's Audrey Tingle, into eight turnovers. It was the first time a CU defense had forced 20 or more turnovers since forcing Frostburg State into 23 turnovers December 2019.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
4- Consecutive wins for Concord against Fairmont State.

55.5- Percentage of points for CU scored in the paint this season (184 of 333).

70.7- Field goal percentage for Fitzwater this season, the only player in NCAA women's basketball above 70 percent.

FAIRMONT STATE AT A GLANCE
Fairmont State's Sierra Kotchman is not only averaging nearly 23 points per game this season, 22.8, the senior guard has the most points among active career players in Division II with 1,747. The aforementioned DeAngelo is the second-leading scorer at 11.6 points per game. Katy Darnell, whose father is in the CU Hall of Fame, is netting 11.4 points per game. Darnell is also the leading rebounding for the Fighting Falcons, grabbing 8.0 per game. FSU is fourth in the MEC in offensive rebounds per game, averaging nearly 15.

FROSTBURG STATE AT A GLANCE
Despite Frostburg State shooting 30 percent in both games with Concord last season, the Bobcats were able to get a split from CU as FSU kept the Mountain Lions at bay in a 54-51 home win—Concord won 82-55 in the first meeting of the 2019-20 season. After defeating Davis & Elkins by one, and West Virginia Wesleyan by three to start the season, Frostburg State has dropped four straight, but two of the losses were by six points—to Wheeling and Notre Dame. Morgan Dombroski is the only player averaging double figures for FSU at 18.2 points per game, 10^th in the MEC. The Bobcats have taken the third-fewest three-point attempts in the MEC (73), but have the highest percentage (43.8 percent / 32-for-73).