Concord Edged by Charleston in Closing Seconds

ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University women's basketball team was clipped by Charleston, 64-63, Wednesday night in a Mountain East Conference game at the Carter Center.

The difference in the game was two successful Charleston (10-7, 6-4 MEC) foul shots with 1.3 remaining in the contest.

The Mountain Lions (8-9, 5-5 MEC) stormed back from a 10-point, fourth-quarter deficit as Concord watched Charleston go ahead 58-48 with 8:34 remaining in the contest. A jumper from senior guard Skylar Davison trimmed the deficit to five points, 58-53, with 6:20 left in the fourth.

Charleston scored on its next offensive trip to establish a seven-point lead. However, the next 10 points in the contest belonged to CU.

Junior forward Abbie connected on two of her eight points in the period before two foul shots from senior guard Sanaiya Morris at the 3:48 mark.

With Concord's defense doing the job on the other end, Smith continued her tear with back-to-back buckets at the 3:21 and 2:52 marks to give the Mountain Lions their first lead since late in the second quarter.

Eleven seconds after Smith's second field goal, junior guard Kennedy Scales netted two points to take the edge to 63-60. But, the Mountain Lions were held scoreless for the final 2:41 of the game. After UC's two foul shots, Davidson's deep jumper from the right corner was a bit too long as time expired.

Concord scored the first seven points of the game over the first minute. And maintained a 24-16 lead after one quarter, thanks in part to four first-quarter three-pointers.

But, Charleston limited CU to 11 second-quarter points as the game went into halftime knotted at 35-35.

The Golden Eagles scored the first two field goals of the third quarter and never relinquished until late in the fourth quarter.

Morris and Smith both finished with 16 points. Morris was 4-for-8 from the field and 7-of-8 at the foul line. Junior forward Imani Hickman produced 14 points.

The Mountain Lions produced 24 turnovers in the game, but only nine turnovers were live ball. It led to 18 Concord points off turnovers.

CU travels to Glenville State 2:00 p.m. Saturday.