WHEELING, W.Va. – The Concord men's basketball team used a 13-3 scoring run in the early stages of the second half to create the separation it needed in a 76-65 win over Alderson Broaddus in the MEC Tournament First Round Wednesday night at WesBanco Arena.
With the game tied for the eighth time, at 39-39, graduate guard
Lual Daniel Rahama scored back-to-back buckets to start the spurt before sophomore forward
Amare Smith hit one of his two second-half three-pointers to push the CU (15-14) lead to 46-42. Freshman forward
Rene Diop helped finish the run by scoring twice in a three-possession stretch to elevate the lead to 52-42 with 11:43 remaining.
Alderson Broaddus (11-17) made a push as it trimmed the lead down to 58-55 with 6:46 left, but a layup from junior guard
JJ Harper and a right elbow jumper from senior guard
Ethan Heller pushed the lead back to seven. AB threatened again as it chipped CU's advantage to 66-61 with just under three minutes remaining, however, three straight dunks—two from Harper and one from Rahama—helped secure the win.
The Mountain Lions watched AB race out to a 15-8 lead in the first five minutes of the game. Concord had an answer with an 11-2 run that gave it a 19-17 edge. From there, neither team led by more than three for the remaining 9:32 of the first half.
Trailing 30-29, Heller had the final shot in the first half with a right wing three-pointer to give Concord a 32-30 lead at the break.
CU stifled the Battlers into shooting 34.8 percent for the game. The Maroon and Gray posted a 46.4 percent showing from the floor. Concord owned a 46-41 rebounding margin with Rahama notching his 12
th double-double of the year with a career-best 29 points to go with 12 rebounds.
Harper and Heller each recorded 11 points with nine of Heller's coming in the first half. Senior forward
Jevon Laidler and Smith both had eight as Smith score all eight of his points in the second half.
Fifth-year senior forward
Da'Vion Moore grabbed nine important rebounds.
The Mountain Lions face nationally-ranked, number five and the tournament's top seed West Liberty 6:00 p.m. Friday at WesBanco Arena.
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