Concord Hits the Road to West Virginia State, Glenville State to Close Regular Season

Concord Stats - West Virginia State Stats - Glenville State Stats - Live Stats - Live Video - Complete Game Notes

ATHENS, W.Va. - The Concord University men's basketball team concludes the regular season with road games against West Virginia State 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Glenville State 4:00 p.m. Saturday in two Mountain East Conference contests.

LIVE COVERAGE
Stats: Live in-game statistics will be provided throughout the week for the road contests.
Video: Live streaming video from Glenville State and West Virginia State will be available. 

RECORDS
The Mountain Lions have evened both their overall record and MEC mark at 13-13 and 10-10.

West Virginia State has won 16 of its last 17 games and is 21-6 overall and 16-4 against MEC foes.

Glenville State has won three straight games to improve to 12-13 overall and 8-12 in the conference.

RACKING UP THE ASSISTS
Concord distributed out 27 assists on 34 made shots in Saturday's 88-78 win over Davis & Elkins. Senior guard Brandon Kennedy led the way with a career-best seven assists while sophomore guard Jordan Wooden added his own personal-high of five assists. Fifth-year senior guard Matt Weir finished one assist ahead of his season average with six versus the Senators. The 27 assists for the Mountain Lions were the most since January 2016 when they also handed out 27 assists in a road win over UVa.-Wise. The 27 assists against Davis & Elkins are the third most in an MEC game this season. Though, Kennedy, Weir and Wooden led the way, eight of the 10 players that saw the floor against D&E had an assist in the contest. The high-assist rate led to CU shooting 47.2 percent from the floor and finishing with 40 points in the paint. In an 86-82 win over Glenville State earlier this season, Weir had 22 points and 11 of CU's 19 assists. He added eight assists versus West Virginia State in November.

THAT'S AMARE!
Freshman forward Amare Smith recorded his first career double-double in the win over Davis & Elkins as he put together a line of 28 points and 11 rebounds. The Huntington, West Virginia native finished 11-of-18 from the floor as he scored the second-most points for a CU player in a game this season, trailing only Weir's 29-point outburst against Frostburg State. Additionally, the 28 points by Smith were the most for a Concord freshman since junior guard Ethan Heller threw in 29 points in his collegiate debut in November 2019 against Pitt-Johnstown. Since being inserted into the starting lineup 11 games ago, Smith is averaging 10.4 points and four rebounds per game while shooting 50 percent (41-for-82) from the floor and 43.3 percent (13-of-30) from three-point range. In what was his second career start, Smith had 11 points on 5-for-7 shooting in the January win.

NO SHOT CLOCK NEEDED
The Mountain Lions went over the 85-point mark in all three wins last week as it tallied 89 and 88 points in road wins over Bluefield State and West Virginia Wesleyan before netting 88 points in the home finale against D&E. The three-game stretch marked the first time since November and December of 2018 that Concord has scored 85 or more points in three-straight wins. In that particular season, CU scored consecutive wins over Urbana, Charleston, West Virginia State and Glenville State while going over 85 points. In its last seven trips to the Walker Convocation Center, Concord is 5-2 and averaging 95.4 points per game, having scored at least 90 in six of those seven contests. In a 96-81 win last February at WVSU, Heller posted his career high with 33 points on 12-of-21 shooting to go with a career-best eight assists. He connected on five of CU's 13 three-pointers.

CLOSE CALLS
As part of an 8-4 home record this season, Concord picked up an overtime home victory over West Virginia State, 81-79, November 29. Heller was able to tie the game at 70-70 in the closing seconds of regulation before the Mountain Lions picked up the two-point win. Fifth-year senior forward Lual Daniel Rahama led the way in scoring with 21 points. Senior forward Da'Vion Moore posted one of his two double-doubles on the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Not only did Kennedy tally 11 points, but one of the best on-ball defenders in the MEC locked down WVSU's Glen Abram to 3-for-21 shooting. Last February, Abram was only 4-of-13 versus Kennedy and the Mountain Lions. Down to just seven players versus GSC in January, junior forward Jevon Laidler was instrumental with a career-best 25 points in the four-point win as he also added eight rebounds.

THREE-POINT BARRAGE
Two of the top three-point shooting teams, not only in the MEC, but all of Division II meet Saturday at Glenville State's Waco Center. The Mountain Lions are 12^th in Division II in three-pointers made per game (10.3) while Glenville State leads the country in made three-pointers per contest at 12.4. Earlier this season, the teams combined for 25 three-pointers as Concord hit 14 and shot 56 percent from beyond the arc. Laidler knocked in four as part of his career day. Weir added three and Kennedy had two more. CU starts the week having made 10 or more three-pointers in seven of its last 10 games. The Mountain Lions are second in the MEC in three-point percentage (37.6). Individually, Weir shoots 41.2 percent from beyond the arc, fourth in the conference. GSC's Tommy Williams is second at 45.0 percent.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
0- Concord defeated WVSU in November despite not making a free throw and only taking two foul shots in the entire game, getting outscored 20-0 at the charity stripe

1- Wins needed by head coach Todd May to tie his predecessor and former boss Kent McBride for fifth on the all-time wins list at Concord with 83.

31.3- Three-point field goal defense for CU, the best in the MEC.

WEST VIRGINIA STATE AT A GLANCE
Since Concord picked off WVSU in November, the Yellow Jackets have lost only three games, two to West Liberty and one to Fairmont State who are both nationally-ranked. A 2-0 week to close the regular season would help West Virginia State solidify its spot in the NCAA Tournament. Though Abram has had some hard luck the last two games against CU, the fifth-year senior ranks eighth in the MEC in scoring (19.1). Do-it all forward Anthony Pittman is averaging 15.5 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.1 blocks per game for the Yellow Jackets. West Virginia State scores 85 points per game, but ranks fifth in the MEC.

GLENVILLE STATE AT A GLANCE
The Pioneers are fresh off wins over West Virginia Wesleyan, Davis & Elkins as well as Salem in a non-conference game Monday evening. John Williams is the leading scorer in the MEC and ranks fourth in Division II with 24.2 points per game. Ten of the 12 wins for GSC this season have come inside the Waco Center as it just picked it up its first true road win of the season last week. Adrian Scarborough is one of the most efficient players in Division II as he shoots 70.8 percent to go with 15.8 points and 9.3 rebounds per contest. Williams had 26 points against CU in January. Scarborough tossed in 13 points and 12 boards.