ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University women's basketball team ran out of steam in the fourth quarter as it lost 72-63 to West Virginia State Wednesday night at the Carter Center in a Mountain East Conference contest.
Trailing 53-30 with 5:28 left in the third quarter, CU (15-12, 10-9 MEC) broke off a 13-2 run over the next 4:17 of the game to get within 55-43 of the of the Yellow Jackets (18-9, 13-6 MEC). Graduate guard
Nakaila Gray paced the spurt by scoring nine of her team-best 15 points in the closing stage of the quarter.
Going to the fourth, Concord trailed 58-44.
Still down nine points with less than six minutes left, a layup from sophomore forward
Abbie Smith cut the deficit to 62-55 at the 5:24 mark. And back-to-back buckets by Gray and junior guard/forward
Deja Atkinson trimmed the lead to 65-61 with 2:10 remaining.
However, West Virginia State was able to cool off CU and went 7-of-10 at the foul line in the final two minutes.
Concord had a brief lead of 13-12 with 3:27 left in the first quarter after a successful jump shot from graduate guard
Jazz Blankenship. But, WVSU finished the first quarter on a 12-2 run to lead 24-15 after 10 minutes.
And the advantage was extended to double digits just over a minute into the second quarter as the Yellow Jackets led 41-28 at the intermission
Gray added six rebounds as part of her 15 points. Smith was the only other Mountain Lion in double figures as she notched her 12
th double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Graduate forward
Alexis Phillips crammed the stat sheet with seven points, 11 rebounds, a career-best five blocks, four steals and three assists.
Junior guard
Skylar Davidson and senior guard
Maddie Ratcliff also netted seven points each in the contest.
Concord wraps up the regular season 2:00 p.m. Saturday at Glenville State. The winner of the game is guaranteed a spot in the top six seed in the upcoming MEC Tournament.
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