Concord Falters Late at West Virginia State

INSTITUTE, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team was defeated 85-80 by West Virginia State Tuesday night in a Mountain East Conference contest at the Walker Convocation Center.

Concord (2-3, 0-2 MEC) held West Virginia State (4-0, 2-0 MEC) scoreless for a two-minute spell in the middle stages of the second half to build its biggest of the game, 61-54, with 10:25 remaining. CU withstood the best shots from the Yellow Jackets over the next five minutes and still led 71-66 after a layup from graduate guard Lual Daniel Rahama with 5:24 remaining.

But, over the next three minutes WVSU outscored the Mountain Lions 14-4 to take an 80-75 advantage.

Concord closed the gap to 80-79 after a layup from junior guard JJ Harper and two free throws from senior guard Ethan Heller. However, West Virginia State made enough free throws in the final 30 seconds to hold off the Mountain Lions.

CU led for nearly 13 minutes of the first half as back-to-back three-pointers by Heller and junior guard Jordan Wooden gave Concord a 10-4 lead. The Yellow Jackets never went away in the opening half, though, as they tied the game at 18-18 with 12:25 left in the opening 20 minutes.

From there, neither team led by more than five points in the first half as the half featured five ties and four lead changes.

Harper and Rahama both had 16 points with Rahama tallying his second double-double of the season with 11 rebounds. Harper threw in three blocks. Senior forward Jevon Laidler scored nine of his 13 points after halftime. Wooden chipped in 11 points.

Heller did a little bit of everything with eight points, six rebounds and five assists.

CU held a 53-47 advantage in rebounding.

The Mountain Lions play the middle game of a three-game road swing 7:00 p.m. Monday when they visit Ohio Dominican in a non-conference tilt.