WHEELING, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team made the last final push as it defeated Wheeling 94-88 Saturday afternoon in a Mountain East Conference game at the McDonough Center.
With the game tied at 82-82, the 14
th tie of the contest, two free throws by sophomore guard
Kollin Tolbert pushed Concord (10-3, 6-3 MEC) ahead at the 3:08 mark. After a Wheeling (5-10, 2-7 MEC) foul shot, Tolbert continued his own personal 9-0 run that began on the preceding free throws as Concord went ahead 91-85 with 35 seconds left.
Wheeling connected on a three-pointer on the next possession, but a foul shot from senior guard
Jordan Wooden and two more foul shots from Tolbert sealed the game.
Holding a 44-40 edge at halftime, the Mountain Lions opened up a lead as large as six, but could never pull away from as Wheeling went on a 13-7 scoring spurt to tie the game at 60-60 with 13:16 remaining.
From there, neither team could separate itself from the other. CU did open up a 78-71 lead, but the margin was quickly closed as the Cardinals tied the game at 82-82 with 3:29 remaining.
After back-and-forth action over the first five minutes of the first half, CU was able to open up its largest lead of the first half, 18-11, after junior forward
Amare Smith scored four consecutive points. Wheeling responded a 13-5 run to take a 24-23 edge at the 10:29 mark of the first half.
Down 37-33 with 3:29 remaining in the first half, Concord scored 11 of the final 14 points to take the four-point advantage into halftime.
Both teams sizzled the nets in the second half as Concord shot 64.2 percent from the floor in the final 20 minutes. Overall, the Mountain Lions hit on 50.7 percent (34-for-67) of their shots in the game.
The 94 points tied a season high for CU.
Five Mountain Lions finished in double figures. Paced by his late flurry, Tolbert scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for his second career double-double. Sophomore forward
Rene Diop tied Tolbert's point total as he scored 10 points in the first half.
Harper netted 14 points while Smith added 13 points. Wooden hit for 10 points.
The 14 ties were paired with 11 lead changes.
The Mountain Lions continue on the road when travel to Charleston to take on their MEC rivals.
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