WHEELING, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team made a late comeback bid, but fell short 88-84 Friday afternoon to Charleston in the Mountain East Conference Tournament Quarterfinals at WesBanco Arena.
Down 10 with 37 seconds left, the Mountain Lions (14-15) traded consecutive made three-pointers from junior guard
Ethan Heller and fifth-year senior guard
Matt Weir for two Charleston (23-6) free throws as CU trailed 85-79 with 14 seconds remaining.
After a miss at the foul line from UC, sophomore guard
Jordan Wooden got an offensive put back to trim the margin to four. Charleston made just 1-of-2 at the foul line the next trip. Junior forward
Jevon Laidler whipped in his only three-pointer of the game to get the deficit to 86-84 with two seconds left, but the Golden Eagles closed the game out at the foul line.
The Mountain Lions led for nearly 11 minutes of the first half as fifth-year senior forward
Lual Daniel Rahama scored 11 points in the first seven minutes of the game and helped Concord to a 19-12 lead at the 12:50 mark of the first half.
Though the game was tied four times, CU did not let go of the lead until it was 31-30 Golden Eagles with 3:24 remaining. Charleston took a 40-37 lead into halftime.
UC sprinted out to a 54-42 lead in the first 4:30 of the second half. Concord came back to slice the deficit to 62-56 with 9:30 left after a bucket from Heller. However, Charleston opened up an edge of 67-56 less than two minutes later.
A Weir three-pointer cut the deficit to 75-70 with 1:45 remaining, but the Golden Eagles responded with five straight points.
Weir put an exclamation point on his career with 30 points on 10-of-17 shooting. The Nashport, Ohio native pumped in six three-pointers on nine attempts. Spurred by his early outburst, Rahama netted 14 points to go with eight rebounds.
Heller and Laidler both dropped in 11 points with Heller adding three assists. With his late basket, Wooden got into double figures with 10 points.
The Mountain Lions shot 47.6 percent for the game and was 47.8 percent from three-point range. CU owned a slight 32-31 rebounding edge.
Friday afternoon marked the final career games for senior guard
Brandon Kennedy, Rahama and Weir.
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