Concord Seeks Regular Season Sweep of West Virginia Wesleyan

Concord Stats – West Virginia Wesleyan Stats – Live Video – Live Stats – Complete Game Notes
 
ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University women's basketball team plays host to West Virginia Wesleyan, winners in five of its last six games, in a Mountain East Conference contest Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. inside the Carter Center.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
The Concord University Sports Information Department will provide live video and statistics for Wednesday's game.
 
LIVE VIDEO
 
LIVE STATS
 
SERIES HISTORY
Concord leads 27-19
 
LAST FIVE MEETINGS AGAINST WEST VIRGINIA WESLEYAN
January 10, 2024: Concord 66 – West Virginia Wesleyan 58 (Buckhannon, W.Va.)
February 15, 2023: West Virginia Wesleyan 64 – Concord 60 (Athens, W.Va.)
January 11, 2023: West Virginia Wesleyan 70 – Concord 58 (Buckhannon, W.Va.)
February 16, 2022: Concord 73 – West Virginia Wesleyan 61 (Buckhannon, W.Va.)
January 12, 2022: Concord 65 – West Virginia Wesleyan 53 (Athens, W.Va.)
 
CONCORD AT A GLANCE
Overall Record: 12-10
MEC Record: 7-7
Home Record: 7-3
Away Record: 5-6
Neutral Record: 0-1
 
TAKE A BOW
Three CU seniors were honored before Saturday's game against Salem: graduate guard Jazz Blankenship, graduate guard Nakaila Gray, and graduate forward Alexis Phillips. All three played pivotal roles in securing the 64-53 win for the Mountain Lions. Blankenship drained three three-pointers to open up the second half for CU, giving the Mountain Lions a 14-point lead. She finished with 10 points in the game for the second time this season. Phillips also scored 10 points, while grabbing nine rebounds and swatting two blocks. Four of her rebounds were offensive, leading to six of Concord's 14 second chance points. Gray scored the first four points of the game for CU and came away with two steals at the top of the Maroon and Gray's full-court pressure.
 
DEFENSIVE ENFORCER
Junior guard Skylar Davidson has also been a key component to Concord's defensive pressure this winter. Davidson had five steals in Wednesday's home win over Salem, pushing her steals total to 65 on the season. With that, she has surpassed Jamie Cluesman's 64 steals in 2004-05 for 10^th-most in a single season in program history with six games to play in the regular season. Davidson is second in the MEC and 13^th in the country averaging 3.0 steals per game. If the season ended today, she would tie for seventh in program history in steals per game in a single season. Davidson has recorded multi-steal games in all but six contests and notched her career-high of six steals twice.
 
HELPING HAND
Over the last five games, junior guard/forward Deja Atkinson has emerged offensively for the Mountain Lions. The Millersville, Md. native has scored in double figures in four of the last five games and led Concord in scoring against Salem, totaling 11 points. Her ability to get to the foul line has been prominent during her scoring surge. On the season, she is averaging 2.7 free throws per game, but has averaged 4.4 during the four-game stretch including a career-high seven made free throws at Frostburg State. In the road win at Bluefield State, Atkinson did not score in double figures, but rather contributed a career-high six assists.  
 
DOWN THE STRETCH
CU has emerged as a second-half team in the latter stages of the season. The Mountain Lions are outscoring opponents by 74 points in the second half of games this winter (738-664). More specifically, Concord owns the margin over opponents by 50, 375-325, in the fourth quarter. CU is 7-1 on the season when it leads at halftime, but has also picked up five wins when trailing at halftime. Earlier this season at the Rockefeller Center against WVWC, the Mountain Lions trailed 23-21 at halftime. After shooting 44 percent from the field and forcing 13 Bobcat turnovers in the second half, the Mountain Lions outscored WVWC 45-35 across the final two quarters to win, 66-58.
 
PATROLLING THE PACE
Concord will be tested with the pace and discipline of West Virginia Wesleyan's defense Wednesday. The Bobcats are allowing just 67.4 points per game, second in the MEC and own the second-best rebounding margin in the conference (+5.5). WVWC also owns Division II's sixth-best opponent rebounding average, only giving up 29.8 rebounds per game. The Bobcats held CU to a season-low 21 boards. While Phillips led Concord with eight rebounds, no other player had more than three. In their last four games, the Bobcats have either allowed 33 or 34 rebounds to opponents, while owning the rebounding advantage in seven of their last nine outings.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
7 – Games in a row scoring at least 20 points off turnovers
8 – Number of different double-digit scorers in the last three games
88.9 – Concord's free throw percentage (16-for-18) at West Virginia Wesleyan in January
 
WEST VIRGINIA WESLEYAN AT A GLANCE
Overall Record: 7-12
MEC Record: 4-10
Home Record: 5-6
Away Record: 2-6
Neutral Record: 0-0
 
SCOUTING THE BOBCATS
The Bobcats head into Wednesday's contest having won five of their last six games. Freshman guard Sydney Baird is coming off of a 34-point performance against Salem where she was a perfect 14-of-14 from the free throw line. Baird is the MEC's free throw percentage leader, shooting 95.2 percent from the line. Sophomore guard Emma Witt and junior guard Shelby Genes both scored in double figures against CU earlier this season with Witt leading all scorers at 20 points. Witt also had 33 points in Saturday's overtime win over West Liberty.