EMORY, Va. – The Concord University women's basketball team outscored Emory & Henry 31-12 in the first quarter and never looked back in an 81-70 win over the Wasps Monday night in a non-conference game at the King Center.
Trailing 9-7 in the opening minutes of the game, Concord (4-6) went on a 16-0 run to open up a 23-9 lead at the 2:28 mark of the first quarter. Six different players combined for the scoring with junior guard
Maddie Ratcliff capping the run with five straight points.
Freshman guard
Hannah Perdue netted five consecutive points before Ratcliff rang in her second three-pointer of the quarter in the final 65 seconds to push CU out to a 19-point lead after 10 minutes.
Concord had at least a 20-point advantage throughout the second quarter and took a 50-29 lead into halftime.
But, Emory & Henry (5-7) pushed the Mountain Lions as it scored the first eight points of the third quarter to trim the deficit to 13 points. Though, Concord worked the lead back up to 21 points, 58-37, on a layup from senior forward
Lauryn Avery.
E&H made another third-quarter charge as it got within 60-53 of the Mountain Lions with 1:26 remaining, however, a three-point play from junior guard
Jaisah Smith in the final 20 seconds of the period restored a double-digit lead of 65-55 with 10 minutes remaining.
The margin got as close as six points, 72-66, at the 5:17 mark of the fourth, but graduate forward
Alexis Phillips and freshman forward
Abbie Smith combined for the next seven points to restore a 79-66 edge with 2:58 remaining.
CU got a balanced scoring effort as A. Smith finished with 14 points and Ratcliff added 12 points with eight coming in the first quarter. Four other players finished with nine points: Avery, sophomore guard
Drea Betts, Perdue and J. Smith.
J. Smith added a team-best seven rebounds, and tied the single-game program record with seven steals.
Powered by 70.6 percent shooting in the first quarter, Concord shot a season-best 48.5 percent (32-of-66) from the floor.
The Mountain Lions scored 35 points off 25 Emory & Henry turnovers. Twenty-one of the 25 turnovers were steals by CU which set a single-game program record, previously established against Bluefield State in January 2016 and January 2017.
Concord hosts West Liberty 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Carter Center. Â
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