Concord Travels to Davis & Elkins for Key MEC Battle

Concord Stats - Davis & Elkins Stats - Live Stats - Live Video - Complete Game Notes

ATHENS, W.Va. - The Concord University men's basketball team plays a pivotal Mountain East Conference game when it travels to Davis & Elkins 4:00 p.m. Saturday in the final regular season road game.

LIVE COVERAGE
The Davis & Elkins Sports Information Department will have live in-game statistics and live video of Saturday's game. 

Live Stats
Live Video

SERIES HISTORY: Concord leads 51-28

LAST FIVE MEETINGS
January 14, 2023: Concord 86 - Davis & Elkins 73 (Athens, W.Va.)
February 19, 2022: Concord 88 - Davis & Elkins 78 (Athens, W.Va.)
January 15, 2022: Davis & Elkins 80 - Concord 65 (Elkins, W.Va.)
March 1, 2021: Concord 107 - Davis & Elkins 100 (2OT) (Athens, W.Va.)
February 13, 2021: Concord 87 - Davis & Elkins 82 (Athens, W.Va.)

CONCORD AT A GLANCE
Overall Record: 14-11
MEC Record: 10-9
Home Record: 7-3
Away Record: 7-7
Neutral Record: 0-1

DOUBLE TROUBLE
Freshman forward Rene Diop and graduate guard Lual Daniel Rahama both went for double-doubles in Concord's 82-60 win over West Virginia Wesleyan Wednesday night. In his first career start, Diop had career highs in both points (17) and rebounds (11) in 26 minutes of action for his first career double-double. Rahama collected his 10^th double-double of the season as he scored 12 points and pulled down 13 rebounds. The Newport News, Virginia native nearly had a double-double at halftime with nine points and eight rebounds. The last time CU had double-doubles from two different players in the same game was last season at Bluefield State when fifth-year senior forward Da'Vion Moore (20 points, 12 rebounds) and junior guard Jordan Wooden (11 points, 11 rebounds) accomplished the feat together.

GLASS SMASH
For the third time this winter, the Mountain Lions outrebounded a team by 20 or more rebounds as it held a 52-32 margin on West Virginia Wesleyan. While Diop and Rahama combined for 24 rebounds, senior forward Jevon Laidler collected nine boards and just missed what would have been his second straight double-double. For CU, 20 of the 52 rebounds came on the offensive end turned into 15 secoc-chance points. Diop had eight of the offensive rebounds while Rahama had three offensive boards. The 52 rebounds were one shy of matching a season high set at West Virginia State in November. Concord's +5.6 rebounding margin for the season ranks second in the MEC—behind Glenville State—and 26^th in Division II.

DO-IT-ALL DANIEL
Along with his 12 points and 13 rebounds, Rahama tied his career high with seven assists versus West Virginia Wesleyan—originally set earlier this season in the Mountain Lions' 78-64 win at WVWC. Rahama just missed a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds versus the Bobcats in January. However, on Wednesday Rahama became the first CU player with a double-double and at least seven assists in the same game since Tommy Bolte had 39 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in a narrow loss to Fairmont State in February 2018. Rahama did have a 10-10-5 game versus Davis & Elkins this season with 13 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. For the season, Rahama leads CU in points, (16.9), rebounds (10.2) and assists (3.1).

COMFORT ZONE
Concord only trailed for 51 seconds in its 86-73 win over Davis & Elkins at the Carter Center January 14. The Mountain Lions threw 55 points on the scoreboard in the first half as it shot 51.4 percent in the opening 20 minutes. Junior guard JJ Harper netted a then career-high 21 points on 7-for-13 shooting. Senior guard Ethan Heller went for 20 points, on 7-of-10 shooting, and handed out six assists. Heller and Rahama combined for 11 of CU's 16 assists. Sophomore forward Amare Smith came off the bench with 14 points (8-for-8 at the foul line) and seven rebounds. The Maroon and Gray outrebounded D&E 46-31 and got a combined 33 points off second chances and turnovers. CU was also 20-of-22 at the foul line, led by Smith.

AT THE POINT
Saturday will be a matchup of the two of the best point guards in the MEC in Heller and the Senators' Sam Rolle. Heller went over 1,100 points Wednesday evening as he moved into 29^th on the all-time scoring list at CU with 1,107 points. Among starting point guards in the conference, Heller and Rolle are two of a group of four averaging 10 points, three rebounds and three assists per game with the other two being West Liberty's Christian Montague and Glenville State's Freddie Word. Heller is averaging nearly 16 points per game in his career versus D&E in eight matchups, and has four career 20-point games. Rolle is up over 1,300 career points as he is scoring 18.7 points per game and leads the MEC with 5.7 assists per game.

HAND UP
Concord and Davis & Elkins have two of the toughest defenses in the MEC in terms of field-goal percentage. Concord has been in the top three for much of the season in field-goal defense and enters Saturday second (42.8). Davis & Elkins is fifth in field-goal defense (44.0). The Mountain Lions have held seven of the last eight teams below 45 percent shooting, and has done it a total of 16 times this winter, going 11-5. Earlier this season, Davis & Elkins was limited to 42.9 percent shooting by CU. The Senators started off strong defensively, but have given up 45 percent or better in four of the last eight games. The Mountain Lions shot just 38 percent in last year's 80-65 road loss at Davis & Elkins.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
3- Seasons since Concord has won at D&E, a 66-61 win February 19, 2020

4.1- Combined blocks per game by Davis & Elkins' Clarens Pieree (1.6), Laidler (1.4) and Harper (1.1) as they rank third, fourth and sixth in the MEC, respectively.

6- The home team has won the last five meetings, dating back to CU's road win in 2020.

DAVIS & ELKINS AT A GLANCE 
Overall Record: 15-10
MEC Record: 9-10
Home Record: 5-5
Away Record: 6-5
Neutral Record: 4-0

SCOUTING THE SENATORS
With a win at Glenville State Wednesday night, Davis & Elkins clinched its first winning season since 1980-81. Rolle flirted with a triple-double in the 73-70 road victory as he recorded 20 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Since missing the first half of the season with injury, Breland Walton has returned to the lineup to average 14 points and six rebounds in 14 games. Vadim Clanet is scoring 12.2 points per game, but has only gotten into double figures twice in the last eight games.