GLENVILLE, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team withstood a second-half surge from Glenville State as it took down the Pioneers, 92-85, Saturday afternoon in a Mountain East Conference game at the Waco Center.
Holding a 46-38 lead at halftime, CU burst out to a 59-38 advantage after a 13-0 scoring run. Senior guard
Corey Boston aided the run with a pair of three-pointers. The Maroon and Gray controlled the opening portion of the second half and led by double digits until GSU cut the margin to eight, 66-58, with 8:28 remaining.
The Pioneers stayed within striking distance over the final eight minutes, but each threat was met by the Mountain Lions coming up with crucial buckets.
Glenville State cut the margin to four, 79-75, with 3:51 left. However, Boston connected on back-to-back field goals to give the Mountain Lions the room they needed to close the game out.
The 13-0 scoring spurt wasn't the only significant run of the game for CU.
With the Mountain Lions down 27-26 after some back-and-forth, junior guard
Kollin Tolbert jumpstarted a 14-2 scoring spurt at the 5:50 mark of the first half. Freshman guard Josiah Rickard came back with two foul shots after the five-minute media timeout to give Concord a 30-27 advantage.
Then, two three-pointers from junior forward
Ken Sallee was wrapped around a triple from freshman guard
Josiah Rickards giving CU a 40-29 lead with 2:51 remaining in the first half.
Concord jumped out to a 7-0 lead with senior forward
Amare Smith accounting for all seven. The Mountain Lions led until GSU was able to gain a 22-20 advantage. From there, the lead changed hands four times in the middle portion of the first half before CU took off.
Boston posted 20 points on an efficient 7-fof-11 shooting. He added six rebounds and six assists. Tolbert went for 19 points and missed a double-double by one rebound while matching Boston's assist total.
With the fast start, Smith finished with 13 points. The duo of Rickards (11) and Sallee (10) came off the bench to finish in double figures.
Though he didn't score, junior forward
Rene Diop gathered up nine rebounds and registered four blocks.
The Mountain Lions shot 50 percent in each half—57.1 in the first and 54.1 in the second—on their way to hitting 55.8 percent (29-for-52) of their attempts.
Defensively, Concord held Glenville State to 38.4 percent shooting, but the 13 three-pointers kept GSU hanging around. The Maroon and Gray controlled the rebounding battle as well 43-31.
CU wraps up its two-game road trip at nationally-ranked Fairmont State 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Â
