ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team blitzed Davis & Elkins in the first half and never looked back in an 86-73 win Saturday afternoon at the Carter Center in a Mountain East Conference game.
The Mountain Lions (10-4, 7-3 MEC) marched out to a 12-6 lead after a jumper from fifth-year senior forward
Da'Vion Moore at the 15:33 mark. Still leading 19-14 with 12:00 remaining in the opening half, CU went on a 14-6 scoring run to lead 33-20 after a bucket from graduate guard
Lual Daniel Rahama.
On the preceding possession, junior guard
JJ Harper made three free throws and Concord led by double-digits for the remainder of the game—at the 8:02 mark.
Concord shot a robust 51.4 percent (19-for-37) from the field in the opening 20 minutes and scored 55 points. Senior guard
Ethan Heller was instrumental in the first-half explosion as he scored 17 of his 20 points for the game in the opening half.
Down 18 at the break, Davis & Elkins (9-7, 3-7 MEC) traded a buckets with CU and made a small run to open the half. However, a dunk from Moore and a three-pointer from Harper with 14:46 remaining stretched the Concord lead out to 20, 64-44.
The largest lead of the game for the Maroon and Gray came at the 5:40 mark of the second after senior forward
Jevon Laidler connected on a three-pointer to give CU a 24-point advantage, 82-58.
Harper (21) and Heller both went over 20 points. The duo combined for 14-of-23 from the field. Heller handed out a season-best six assists and canned four of his six three-point tries. Rahama notched his fifth double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds while tossing in five assists. Sophomore forward
Amare Smith came off the bench with 14 points, 8-of-8 at the foul line.
As a team, Concord was 20-for-22 (90.9 percent) at the free-throw stripe.
CU finished the game shooting 44.6 percent (29-of-65). The Mountain Lions outrebounded D&E 46-31.
Concord travels to Salem 4:00 p.m. Monday for the start of a four-game road trip. Â
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