WHEELING, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team stormed back from a 10-point halftime deficit to push past Wheeling, 81-76, Saturday afternoon in a Mountain East Conference game at the McDonough Center.
After shooting 31.4 percent in the first half and only scoring 25 points, the Mountain Lions (8-4, 5-3 MEC) quickly found the hot hand in the second half.
Concord came out of the intermission and outscored Wheeling (2-12, 0-8 MEC) 9-5 in the first three minutes after graduate guard
Lual Daniel Rahama hit a three-pointer from the left wing. Still trailing 44-40 at the 14:54 mark, CU promptly went on a 10-0 to take a lead it would not give back.
Five different Mountain Lions scored during the spurt.
The Cardinals closed to within 55-53 with 8:30 remaining, however, a layup from fifth-year senior forward
Da'Vion Moore and a three-point from junior guard
JJ Harper on the next trip pushed the lead back to seven.
Wheeling made another run at CU two minutes later. Up three points, 60-57, a free throw from Rahama was followed by a triple from the top of the key from senior guard
Ethan Heller. Sophomore forward
Amare Smith made two free throws and junior guard
Jordan Wooden hit a jumper to the paint to give Concord its largest lead of the game, 68-57, with 4:51 remaining.
The Mountain Lions still led by seven points, 78-71, with 27 seconds remaining as it was able to hold off WU.
Rahama tallied 19 points and a career-best 15 rebounds for his second straight double-double. Eight of the boards for Rahama came on the offensive end. Senior forward
Jevon Laidler scored 13 of his 15 points after halftime, and added eight rebounds. Â Â Â
Harper notched 14 points while Heller went for 13 points on 4-for-7 shooting. Wooden tallied 10 points.
After a subpar first half, Concord shot 55.9 percent in the second half and 43.5 percent for the game (30-for-69).
CU held a 44-38 edge on the glass.
The Mountain Lions go for a fourth-straight road win 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at West Virginia Wesleyan.
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