Athens, W.Va. – The Concord University women's basketball team defeated Wheeling, 83-66, Saturday afternoon in a Mountain East Conference matchup held at the Carter Center.
The Mountain Lions' (9-4, 5-3 MEC) first-half performance, shooting 62.2 percent and holding Wheeling (2-10, 2-6 MEC) to 20.6 percent from the field, helped propel CU to the victory.
With 5:30 left in the first quarter, CU went on an 18-2 run. Senior guard
Maggie Guynn drained two three-pointers. Fifth-year senior forward
Riley Fitzwater converted a three-point play and nabbed a steal during the run.
To start the second quarter, the Mountain Lions picked up where they left off and began the quarter on a 17-3 run. Junior guard
Jazz Blankenship canned three three-pointers within a span of two minutes. Blankenship also swatted away one shot and swiped two steals in the second quarter. One of those steals led to a fastbreak layup from senior guard
Gracie Robinson.
Concord's first half performance set the tone for the rest of the game and CU never gave up the lead, ballooning the advantage to as much as 36 points early in the second half. The Mountain Lions held the Cardinals to 35.3 percent from the field, while shooting 47.9 percent on the day. CU tallied 18 assists on 34 made shots. Blankenship tallied a team-high five assists and sophomore guard
Maddie Ratcliff added four more assists.
Fitzwater finished with 15 points and nine rebounds. With her scoring performance today, Fitzwater moves into second for most points in program history with 1,796.
Sophomore guard
Jaisah Smith led CU in points with 16, shooting 70 percent (7-of-10) from the field. Blankenship finished with 15 points and three three-pointers. Redshirt junior
Alexis Phillips went 5-6 at the foul line, finishing with seven points and nine rebounds.
Concord is on the road Monday at 5:30 p.m. to face UVa.-Wise in a non-conference game.
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