ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team jumped out to a 16-6 lead and never looked back in an 88-69 win over Point Park Wednesday night in a Mountain East Conference game at the Carter Center.
CU (2-4, 2-1 MEC) got out to the early lead thanks in part to three three-pointers over the first 4:33 of the game. Senior forward
Amare Smith knocked in back-to-back triples to force a Point Park (4-4, 1-3 MEC) timeout with 15:27 remaining in the first half.
PPU chipped away at the lead and capped off a 10-2 run that lasted just over four minutes as Concord held an 18-16 lead at the 11:33 mark of the first half. However, the Mountain Lions opened back up a 10-point advantage after junior forward
Ken Sallee scored three of his 10 points at the 7:42 mark to establish a 28-18 lead.
The Mountain Lions held at least an eight-point lead for the remainder of the half and led 42-28 at the intermission.
Out of the locker room, Concord popped off a quick 17-7 run to open the lead up to 59-35 after freshman forward
Kraig Gilbert threw in three of his career-best 14 points in the contest. The advantage got as high as 29 points with one of the three three-pointers that freshman guard
Josiah Rickards connected on, elevating the margin to 69-40 with 11:21 remaining.
Leading 70-44, CU withstood a 12-0 Point Park run in the middle stages of the second half as a bucket from junior guard
Kollin Tolbert and another three-pointer from Rickards quelled the run and Concord restored a 19-point lead, also the eventual winning margin in the game.
Five Mountain Lions registered double figures.
Senior guard
Corey Boston netted 18 points in his return to action after more than two weeks off. Tolbert poured in 17 points on 5-for-11 shooting and a perfect 6-of-6 at the foul line. Gilbert added six rebounds and a team-best three blocks to go with his 14 points.
Smith tallied 12 points and Sallee rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points.
Sophomore forward
Boubacar Djigo came off the bench and tore down a career-high 10 rebounds.
Fueled by a 54.5 percent shooting from the field in the second half, CU shot 46.4 percent for the game, and held Point Park to 31.0 percent shooting.
Concord made a season-best 12 three-pointers on just 23 attempts (52.2 percent).
The Mountain Lions travel to Salem 4:00 p.m. Saturday for a non-conference game.
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