Concord Stats -
West Virginia State Stats -
Live Audio -
Live Stats -
Live Video
ATHENS, W.Va. - The Concord University men's basketball team plays its third game in the four days as it welcomes West Virginia State to the Carter Center 7:00 p.m. Monday for a Mountain East Conference game.
LIVE COVERAGE
Audio: Jason Reed and
Steve Cox will have live radio play-by-play of Monday's game on 94.5 "Willie" FM and streaming at www.mywillie.com
Stats: Live in-game statistics will be provided by the Concord University Sports Information Department.
Video: Live streaming video will be available courtesy of Concord.
RECORDS
CU is 2-4 after going 1-1 at the Gary Miller Classic hosted by Gannon.
West Virginia State is 3-2 ahead of Monday's contest.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
In a 92-80 loss to Saint Michael's Friday night, fifth-year senior forward
Lual Daniel Rahama and fifth-year senior guard
Matt Weir both tallied double-doubles. Rahama scored the most points in a game for CU this season by dropping in 27 points and adding 13 rebounds for his first career double-double in a CU jersey. Weir became the first player since Tommy Bolte in December 2018 to have a double-double with points and assists as he tallied 11 points and 11 assists. Friday marked the fourth time in the last five seasons that Concord has had two or more players record a double-double in the same game. And before Friday, the only active player with a career double-double was senior forward
Da'Vion Moore who went for 18 points and 10 rebounds against Frostburg State in January. By averaging a double-double at the Gary Miller Classic (19.5 points, 10 rebounds), Rahama was named to the all-tournament team.
BENCH MOB
Concord's bench accounted for 45 of the 90 points in a 21-point win over D'Youville Saturday night. Three of the five double-figure scorers for the Mountain Lions in the game came off the bench as junior guard
Ethan Heller pumped in 12 points. Freshman guard
Darius Parham got his first extended action of the season, matching Heller's 12 points and sophomore forward
Luken Hill recorded double digits off the bench for the second time this season with 10 points and five offensive rebounds versus D'Youville. The most bench points scored by the Mountain Lions last season were 29 and the 45 bench points are the most since posting 48 at Charleston at the end of November in 2017.
PARTY OF THREES
Over the weekend, Heller and senior guard
Brandon Kennedy became the 27
th and 28
th players in program history to notch 100 career three-pointers. Heller reached the milestone with three three-pointers against Saint Michael's and added two more three-pointers Saturday night. After hitting a season-best four triples against Saint Michael's, Kennedy went over 100 career three-pointers versus D'Youville. The Ohio guard duo are the seventh and eighth players to top the century mark on three-pointers in head coach
Todd May's six-year tenure at Concord. Against SMC and D'Youville, the Mountain Lions hit on 24 three-pointers, including 14 against Saint Michael's. The Mountain Lions are tied for 15
th in Division II in made three-pointers per game at 11.5. Heller, Kennedy and Weir are all shooting at least 40 percent from three-point distance this year.
ASSISTANCE NEEDED
Led by Weir, CU assisted on 48 of its 67 made field goals at the Gary Miller Classic. The Mountain Lions registered 26 assists in Friday's defeat—the most since January 2016 at UVa.-Wise. Heller finished one assist off his career high with seven against Saint Michael's. Weir's 6.5 assists per game rank in a tie for 10
th in Division II. The Nashport, Ohio native has handed out at least four assists in five of six games this season and is better than 2-to-1 in assist-to-turnover ratio (39 to 16) . As a team, Concord is second in the MEC and top 25 in Division II in assists per game (18.6). Heller notched his career high in assists in last season's 96-81 win at West Virginia State with eight.
HIGH OCTANE
In his five previous seasons at Concord, Coach May is 7-3 versus West Virginia State. And there's been no shortage of points in the last 10 meetings between CU and the Yellow Jackets. The Mountain Lions are averaging 89.6 points per game in the last 10 contests with WVSU and have scored 90 or more six times while only being limited to less than 80 twice. In an 89-74 home loss to West Virginia State last year, CU shot 47.3 percent, but committed 15 turnovers as the Yellow Jackets turned that into 19 points. Fifth-year senior guard Glen Abram pumped in 32 points at the Carter Center last season. But at WVSU, Concord was victorious by 15. Heller scored a career-best 33 points on 12-for-21 shooting.
BOARD BATTLE
CU is coming off a season-best 52 rebounds as it collected 18 offensive rebounds versus D'Youville, but the Mountain Lions will have their work cut out against two of the best rebounders in the MEC in Jeremiah Moore and Anthony Pittman. Pittman is fourth in the MEC in rebounds per game (7.8) while Moore is fifth (7.4). However, no other WVSU player is collecting more than 3.8 rebounds per game. Traditionally a good rebounding team, West Virginia State ranks 11
th in the MEC in rebounding margin (-7.4). Concord is getting outrebounded by just one per game (-1.2) which is sixth in the conference. Last season, the Yellow Jackets outrebounded Concord by one in each matchup.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
+21- Rebounding margin for Concord against D'Youville, the highest since January 2018 at UVa.-Wise.
35- Concord has shot at least 35 percent from three-point range in all six games this season.
57- Second-half points scored by CU in its 96-81 win at West Virginia State last season.
WEST VIRGINIA STATE AT A GLANCE
The Yellow Jackets played in their own Thanksgiving Week tournament as they were invited to the Chris Paul HBCU Tip-Off at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut. WVSU went 1-1 as it fell to Virginia Union, but beat Morehouse in the third-place game. An All-MEC First Team selection last season, Abram is fifth in the league in scoring this season (19.6) and is hitting three three-pointers per game. One of the best all-around athletes in the league, Pittman is top five in the MEC in rebounding, blocks, steals and free-throw percentage in addition to being in top 20 in the MEC in scoring at 13.4 points per game. Moore is making 59 percent of his shots, third in the MEC.
