Concord Concludes Regular Season with Road Trips to West Virginia State, Glenville State

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

ATHENS, W.Va. - The Concord University women's basketball team rounds out the regular season when it visits West Virginia State 5:30 p.m. Wednesday before traveling to undefeated Glenville State 2:00 p.m. Saturday in a pair of Mountain East Conference games.

LIVE COVERAGE
Stats: Both Glenville State and West Virginia State will provide live in-game statistics for the contests this week. 
Video: Live stream video is available for both games

RECORDS
The Mountain Lions have won four straight games and are 19-9 this season while sporting a 12-8 conference record.

West Virginia State is on the NCAA Tournament bubble with marks of 17-8 overall and 13-7 in the MEC.

Glenville State is ranked number one nationally at 25-0 with 20 wins coming against conference foes.

RILEY 2K
On Saturday afternoon, fifth-year senior forward Riley Fitzwater became the second player in program history and just one of eight active Division II women's basketball players with 2,000 career points. Earlier in the week, Fitzwater reached 1,500 career rebounds, becoming the first Division II women's basketball player with 2,000 points and 1,500 rebounds in a career since Elizabeth City State's Celeste Trahan from 2000-04. Fitzwater now stands at 2,020 career points and needs 31 to surpass Jina Skinner (1989-92) for the all-time scoring lead at Concord. On a separate scoring note, senior guard Maggie Guynn moved into the top 10 in all-time scoring at Concord with a 24-point outburst at West Virginia Wesleyan Wednesday. The Pearisburg, Virginia native has 1,216 points for her career. The 3,236 points that Fitzwater and Guynn have combined for are the second most among MEC teammates, trailing only Fairmont State's Sierra Kotchman and Kamrin Weimer.

CLAMPING DOWN
During the recent string of games that has seen the Mountain Lions win five of their last six contests, Concord has held three opponents to less than 40 percent shooting and none of the six teams have shot better than 43 percent on the Maroon and Gray. In Saturday's 66-55 win over Davis & Elkins, CU limited the Senators to 33.3 percent shooting, the 11^th time this season that Concord has held an opponent to 35 percent or less form the field. In a November win, the Mountain Lions stymied West Virginia State into 30.1 percent from the floor in a 75-69 win. The Yellow Jackets also shot just 20.6 percent from the three-point line. If the season ended today, Concord's field-goal defense of 37.5 percent would be the third best in program history. It would also mark the fifth straight season that the Mountain Lions have sported a field-goal percentage defense of 38 percent or less.

GET ON THE BOARDS
In the win over Davis & Elkins, Concord owned a decided 47-35 advantage in rebounds as the Mountain Lions yanked down 14 offensive rebounds, the third-highest total of the season. The double-digit rebounding margin was the fifth time in 2021-22 that CU has outrebounded an opponent by 10 or more boards. Although Fitzwater grabbed 10 rebounds for her 78^th career double-double, and junior forward Alexis Phillips finished with her season average of six rebounds against D&E, it was junior guard Ashton Funderburg and Guynn that secured a double-digit rebounding edge. Funderburg tied her career high with seven rebounds, including three on the offensive glass. Guynn went and got seven rebounds to post the second-highest total of the season for her. CU is fourth in the MEC in rebounding margin (+3.7). Glenville State has the highest rebounding margin this season (10.3) while West Virginia State is eighth (-0.8).

SUCCESS AGAINST STATE
The Mountain Lions enter Wednesday having won seven of their last nine games against West Virginia State. Since a 90-68 loss to West Virginia State at the end of the 2017-18 season, Concord has won three straight games inside the Walker Convocation Center. Fitzwater has two career triple-double (points, rebounds, blocks) with both coming against WVSU. During the 2018-19 season, Fitzwater went for 10 points, 20 rebounds and 11 blocks at West Virginia State. Two seasons ago, the Mountain Lions scored a program-record 122 points in a 10-point win over the Yellow Jackets on the road. And last year to close the regular season, the Maroon and Gray scored a 104-93 win in Institute. Fitzwter netted 32 points. Guynn threw in 27 points. Earlier this season, Guynn recorded a career-high 31 points on 12-of-15 shooting versus WVSU. In her career, Fitzwater is averaging 16.6 points and 13.4 rebounds while shooting 73.2 percent in nine games against West Virginia State. Guynn has five straight games of scoring at least 20 points versus WVSU.

HOMECOMING
Saturday's regular-season finale will be a homecoming for Fitzwater as well as head coach Kenny Osborne. Fitzwater grew up in the shadows of Glenville State while Osborne is a graduate of GSC. The group of Fitzwater, Guynn and senior guard Gracie Robinson have won in every MEC road venue except for Glenville State and Frostburg State. Two seasons ago, CU was dealt a 110-84 loss inside the Waco Center. Robinson threw in 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting to go with five rebounds and five assists. Fitzwater was limited to 12 points and eight rebounds. In January, the undefeated Pioneers won 105-67 at CU. Sophomore guard Maddie Ratcliff netted 15 points. Fitzwater added a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
22- Concord outscored West Virginia State by 22 points (45-23) in the middle quarters of November's win.

40- Points in the paint versus West Virginia State in November.

68.7- Fitzwater's career field-goal percentage which is one full percent ahead of the all-time record set at 67.6 by Valdosta State's Deidre Williams from 1993-96.

WEST VIRGINIA STATE AT A GLANCE
WVSU entered last week in the top eight of the Atlantic Region, however, the Yellow Jackets lost by seven at home to Alderson Broaddus and fell by 12 on the road against Notre Dame. West Virginia State had won seven of eight before losses to AB, NDC and Glenville State last week. Charity Shears (11.6 points), Destiny Fields (11.3) and Shelby Harmeyer (10.0) all average double figures. Harmeyer has a made team-best 58 three-pointers. Harmeyer hit four three-pointers at the Carter Center earlier this season. The Yellow Jackets are the fourth-highest scoring team in the MEC at 80.1 points per game.

GLENVILLE STATE AT A GLANCE
The Pioneers are averaging a Division II-best 99.0 points per game and their 15.6 steals per game are tied for first in Division II. Glenville State is beating teams by nearly 36 points per game. One of the closer calls of the season for the Pioneers was last Wednesday at Davis & Elkins as they trailed entering the fourth quarter before winning by 13 points to remain undefeated. Re'Shawna Stone (17.7 points) and Zakiyah Winfield (17.0) are third and fifth in the MEC in scoring with Fitzwater sandwiched in between. Winfield tallied 20 points and seven rebounds in GSC's January road win over Concord. Stone was held to six points.