CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team was defeated 93-82 by Charleston at the Wehrle Center in a Mountain East Conference contest Wednesday night.
The Mountain Lions went back-and-forth with Charleston early in the game as senior guard
Ethan Heller drained a deep three-pointer at the end of the shot clock to trim the deficit to 16-14 with 13:14 remaining in the first half. Late in the first half, UC pulled away as it outscored Concord 18-11 over the final 5:53 of the first half as it was already holding a 31-25 lead.
Though Concord shot 45.2 percent in the first half, it was unable to keep pace with the Golden Eagles who hit 54.8 percent of their shots in the opening 20.
CU trimmed the lead to eight points, 51-43, two minutes into the second half after senior forward
Jevon Laidler scored two of his team-best 18 points in the game. Charleston worked the lead back up to a game-best 15 points, 64-49, with 12:44 remaining. However, the Mountain Lions held UC to three points over the next three minutes to cut the deficit to 67-61 with 9:44 left.
It was close as the Maroon and Gray would get over the final nine minutes of the game.
Laidler went 6-for-8 from the field as part of his efficient night. Harper did the bulk of his damage in the second half as he finished with 14. Graduate guard
Lual Daniel Rahama just missed his seventh double-double of the season with 10 points and nine rebounds. Â
Heller got to double figures late in the game as he finished with 14 points. In the process, he became the 41
st player in program history to surpass 1,000 points. Sophomore forward
Amare Smith matched Heller in the scoring column. Â
Behind balanced shooting between each half, CU shot 49.3 percent for the game.
Concord heads to Glenville State 4:00 p.m. Saturday for an MEC matchup.
Â
