CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team was unable to overcome a second-half spurt by nationally-ranked Charleston as it lost 78-67 Wednesday night in a Mountain East Conference contest at the Wehrle Center.
Despite holding Charleston (14-2, 9-1 MEC) without a field goal for more than seven minutes in the second half, Concord (10-4, 6-4 MEC) was able to pounce on the Golden Eagles. With UC leading 44-40 at the 17:59 mark of the second half, the Mountain Lions turned up the defensive pressure and cracked off a 13-3 run to lead 53-47 with 11:29 left.
A three-pointer by Charleston ignited a 17-2 run, while also ending the drought from the field, that saw UC lead 64-55 with 5:49 remaining. A bucket by sophomore guard
Kollin Tolbert trimmed the margin back to seven points, but it was as close as the Mountain Lions would get down the stretch.
Concord watched Charleston jump out to a 14-7 lead just over five minutes into the game. However, the next 12 points belonged to the Mountain Lions as they went up 19-14 after a layup by Tolbert at the 10:16 mark of the first half.
After CU opened up another five-point lead, 23-18, with 7:14 remaining in the first half, the Golden Eagles ran off a 7-0 spurt that was extinguished by a three-pointer from fifth-year senior
Jevon Laidler as Concord went back up 26-25 with 5:52 remaining in the first half.
From there, neither team led by more than four points for the remainder of the first half as Charleston took the narrowest of margins into halftime, 39-38.
The seesaw first half featured eight ties and seven lead changes.
Tolbert led all scorers with 22 points to go with a team-best seven rebounds. Junior forward
Amare Smith was the only other CU player in double figures with 10 points. Senior guard
Jordan Wooden tallied nine points. Laidler did a little bit of everything in the game with seven points, five rebounds and a career-best five steals.
CU returns to the Carter Center to host Glenville State 4:00 p.m. Saturday. It will be the program's annual Suits and Sneakers game, raising awareness in the NABC's Coaches vs. Cancer initiative.
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