ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team erased a double-digit first-half deficit as it clipped Wheeling in overtime, 101-98, Wednesday night at the Carter Center in a Mountain East Conference battle.
CU (12-10, 9-8 MEC) trailed throughout and found itself down 67-60 with 13:08 remaining.
Concord continued to grind away as it put together a 10-2 run to take a lead of 70-69 at the 9:24 mark—the first lead since 27-26. From there, neither team could gain a significant advantage as the biggest lead was four, 76-72, for Wheeling (5-18, 3-14 MEC).
With the game tied at 80-80, senior guard
Ethan Heller buried one of his five three-pointers in the game to give Concord an edge. The Cardinals came right back with six straight points to up 86-83 at the 1:42 mark. CU, though, had an answer 10 seconds later as junior guard
JJ Harper buried a right corner three-pointer.
Neither team could find a late score, sending the game to overtime.
After Wheeling scored the first basket of overtime, Heller ignited an 11-2 run as he scored eight of the 11 points, and Concord opened up a 97-90 lead with 2:36 remaining. The Cardinals didn't flinch as they scored on back-to-back possession to get within 97-95. Heller came up with a driving layup to stop the mini run.
But again, WU wasn't done as a three-point play cut the Concord margin to 99-98 with 19 seconds remaining. Heller calmly sank two free throws, and the Mountain Lions forced a contested three-pointer in the final five seconds to hang on for a three-point victory.
CU watched Wheeling jump to a 9-3 lead, and led for only 66 seconds of the first half.
Harper scored 20 of his career-high 30 points in the first half. Heller netted 20 points in the second half and overtime as he finished with 27 points and seven assists. Senior forward
Jevon Laidler had a strong game off the bench with 20 points and three blocks.
Graduate guard
Lual Daniel Rahama (nine points, 11 rebounds) and sophomore forward
Amare Smith (nine points, 10 rebounds) both just missed double-doubles.
Concord takes on nationally-ranked West Liberty on the road 4:00 p.m. Saturday.
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