BLUEFIELD, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team shot 58.6 percent in the second half on its way to an 82-72 win over Bluefield State Monday night in a non-conference rivalry game inside Ned Shott Gymnasium.
Holding a slim 34-31 margin at halftime, Concord ran off a 7-0 run to open the half as it built largest lead of the game, 41-31, with 17:29 remaining. The Mountain Lions were able to keep Bluefield State at arm's length and was still maintaining a double-digit lead of 61-49 with 10:49 left after a jumper from junior guard
Corey Boston.
CU had to survive a charge from the Big Blues as they rattled off an 11-4 spurt to climb within 65-60 with 7:21 remaining. Fifth-year senior forward
Jevon Laidler had an answer though as he hit for five straight points to restore a 10-point lead, 70-60. The closest Bluefield State got down the stretch of the game was seven points as Concord closed out its second-straight, double-digit win.
The Mountain Lions jumped out to a 14-5 lead through six minutes of the first half—the largest lead of the opening 20 minutes for either team. However, BSU scored 11 of the next 12 points to take a 16-15 edge. From there, neither team held a lead larger than four points over the final 12:17 of the first half.
Concord did score six of the final nine points of the half to a 34-31 lead into halftime. And the small amount of momentum carried into the second half.
The strong second-half shooting led to Concord shooting 47.5 percent for the game (29-for-61) while holding BSU to 40.7 percent. Concord connected on 10 three-pointers as it was 43.5 percent from beyond the arc (10-of-23). The Big Blues took the exact same number of triples and only hit five.
Sophomore guard
Kollin Tolbert was 5-for-10 from the floor and 7-of-8 at the foul line on his way to scoring 18 points. Senior guard
Jordan Wooden hit on four three-pointers as part of his 14 points. Sophomore forward
Rene Diop and senior guard
JJ Harper both netted 10 points with Diop adding 10 rebounds for a double-double.
Laidler and junior forward
Amare Smith both added eight points.
The Mountain Lions held a 39-33 edge on the boards.
CU travels to Notre Dame 7:30 p.m. Wednesday as it closes out a three-game road trip.
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