ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team hit 14 three-pointers for the second consecutive game as it led for all but 2:29 of the contest on its way an 80-66 win over Notre Dame Wednesday night in a Mountain East Conference at the Carter Center.
CU (8-10, 6-7 MEC) saw Notre Dame (10-9, 7-6 MEC) score the first bucket of the game, but then went on a 13-0 run to grab an early 10-point lead. Junior forward
Jevon Laidler and freshman forward
Amare Smith combined for the first 10 points before senior guard
Brandon Kennedy connected on the first of his five first-half three-pointers at the 15:48 mark.
NDC was able to work the margin back to four points with six straight points, but the Mountain Lions went on a 16-8 spurt capped by junior guard
Ethan Heller's three-pointer at the 5:49 mark of the opening half. Kennedy added two more triples with fifth-year senior guard
Matt Weir adding a three-pointer right before Heller's long ball.
Concord settled for a 38-32 halftime lead.
Notre Dame got within one point of Concord twice, 42-41 and 44-43, but the Mountain Lions ripped off an 18-4 run over the next 6:34 of the contest to build a game-high, 15-point lead, 62-47. Weir and sophomore guard
Jordan Wooden paced the run with as they combined for 11 points.
Concord had to hold off a late NDC rally attempt as the Falcons worked it down to a six-point game, 70-64, with 2:31 left. However, Wooden hit a free throw, and Laidler netted a three-pointer at the 1:08 mark to snuff out the comeback bid.
After a career-best 25 points on Saturday, Laidler scored a game-best 20 points Wednesday. Paced by his first-half shooting performance, Kennedy tallied a season-best 17 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Weir recorded his second-straight double-double of 12 points and 10 assists while grabbing six rebounds.
In his first career start, Wooden came up with 12 points and tied for the team lead in rebounds with six.
The Mountain Lions finished the game shooting 42.4 percent from three-point range (14-of-33). CU shot 42.1 percent from the field (24-for-57).
Defensively, Concord held NDC to 40 percent (26-of-65) from the floor. Individually, Kennedy and Wooden frustrated the MEC's third-leading scorer Jaedon Willis (21.6 points per game) into 2-of-11 shooting for nine points.
CU plays at Alderson-Broaddus 4:00 p.m. Saturday.
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