Concord Set for Monday Non-Conference Tilt Against Salem

Concord Stats - Salem Stats - Live Stats - Live Video - Complete Game Notes

ATHENS, W.Va. - The Concord University women's basketball team welcomes Salem to the Carter Center for a non-conference game 4:00 p.m. Monday.

LIVE COVERAGE
Stats: The Concord University Sports Information Department will provide live in-game statistics for Monday.
Video: Live streaming video will also be available for the contest. 

RECORDS
Concord is 13-7 this season after a 77-64 setback at Alderson-Broaddus Saturday.

Salem has had a week off competition, but is 6-8 this season.

STEPPING IN, STEPPING UP
With three starters and one of its top bench players out against Alderson-Broaddus Saturday due to Covid-19 protocols, CU had to mix up the lineup. Junior guard Ashton Funderburg received her third career start—and first since her freshman year—while junior forward Lauryn Avery got the nod in the starting lineup for the first time in her career. In-and-out of the starting lineup this season, sophomore guard Maddie Ratcliff made the most of her 11^th start of the season as she dropped in a career-best 22 points versus the Battlers, topping her 19 points to open the season against Clarion. Sophomore forward Nakaila Gray came off the bench for the Mountain Lions to add a career-high 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting. The 20 minutes that Gray played in the contest Saturday was the most in a game since a December 2019 game at Salem when she played 25 minutes.

TAKING CARE OF THE ROCK
When Funderburg wasn't on the court as Concord's point guard Saturday, sophomore guard Jaisah Smith got the call to run the offense. The Bluefield, West Virginia native handed out a career-best seven assists while not turning the ball over. Funderburg added three assists as CU's primary ball handlers only committed one combined turnover and had 10 assists. As a team, the Maroon and Gray committed a season-low seven turnovers at Alderson-Broaddus. However, on Monday Concord will see a team in Salem that forces 21.5 turnovers per game from the opponents and comes up with 10.2 assists per contest. But, Salem tends to get a little loose with the ball as it gives the ball away 17.1 times per game. On Saturday, junior guard Jazz Blankenship and Ratcliff each had three steals against A-B as the Mountain Lions turned 17 turnovers into 15 points.

OPPORTUNE TIME
For the season, Concord shoots the ball at a 44.1 percent rate from the floor. However, over the last four games the Mountain Lions have gone over 40 percent once—last Saturday against Glenville State when it hit 41.0 percent of their shots. While Salem does notch over 20 turnovers per game from the opponent, the Tigers allow opponents to hit nearly 45 percent of their shots—44.8. When CU squared off against Salem two seasons ago, the Mountain Lions hit just 38.6 percent of their shots in a 73-62 road win. But in a meeting in January 2019 at the Carter Center, the Maroon and Gray was good on 57 percent of its attempts from the field in a 90-73 victory over the Tigers. Furthermore, SU commits 24 fouls per game, and the Mountain Lions are hitting 72.3 percent of their foul shots thi seasons. CU has only shot below 70 percent from the charity stripe at home once this season.

LET'S RUN
The Maroon and Gray tallied a season-best 20 fast break points against Alderson-Broaddus. The previous high was in a pair of home games when Concord netted 17 fast break points against Bluefield State and Wheeling. The last time CU had 20 or more fast break points in a game before Saturday was in the second game of the 2019-20 campaign when it posted 24 transition points against Lock Haven. With Salem's pressing style, a high-octane pace game could be in store Monday afternoon. Though, in the December 2019 meeting between the two sides there were just a total of 10 transition points as Concord had four to Salem's six.

FIRST LOOK
With the players available for Concord on Monday afternoon, just three have seen game action against Salem as the two teams did not meet last year with CU only playing Mountain East Conference games. Back in December 2019, Blankenship got her first career start at Salem as she hit 3-of-6 three-point tries and netted nine points. Gray played the aforementioned 25 minutes on the road against the Tigers as she netted her previous career high of 11 points with seven of those coming at the free-throw line on eight attempts. Funderburg also came off the bench for the Mountain Lions in Concord's 11-point road win. Monday will be the 22^nd meeting between the two sides with Concord holding a 13-8 advantage in the all-time series.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
2- Saturday was just the second time this season that CU had fewer than 10 turnovers.

27- Free throws taken by the Mountain Lions in their last game against Salem, making 22 of them.

37- Field-goal defense for Concord, second best in the MEC.

SALEM AT A GLANCE
Salem's last game was against the other Mercer County team, Bluefield State, as the Tigers bagged a 75-73 victory January 22. The latest win was the third straight for SU as it previously defeated King and Emory & Henry. Monday will be the fifth MEC team that Salem has played this year as it defeated Alderson-Broaddus and Frostburg State, but lost to Fairmont State and West Virginia Wesleyan. The Tigers are just 1-5 on the road this season. Daniela Quesada leads three players in double figures, netting 14.6 points per game. Nerea Fernandez notches 12.6 points per game and Aleena Mongerie is scoring 10.3 points per contest. SU is shooting just 36 percent from the floor this season and 26 percent from three-point range.