ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team saw a nine-game winning streak end Saturday afternoon in an 102-85 loss to nationally-ranked, eighth-rated West Liberty inside the Carter Center in a Mountain East Conference game.
Down by as much as 21 points in the first half, the Mountain Lions (16-8, 13-5 MEC) outscored West Liberty (23-3, 17-2 MEC) 20-12 over the final seven minutes of the first half to only trail by 13 points, 55-42, at halftime.
CU hit back-to-back three-pointers as redshirt freshman guard
Brendan Hoffman and junior forward
Ken Sallee connected on triples to start the run. At the 3:39 mark of the first half, senior guard
Corey Boston reduced the deficit to 14 points as he buried his own three-point basket. Boston hit for another triple with just over a minute left in the half, but WLU had the final field goal of the first half as it took the 13-point lead into the locker room.
The Hilltoppers worked the lead back to 17 points, 67-50. However, Concord began to make its move with a 13-2 spurt. Boston (four points) and junior forward
Rene Diop (six points) combined for the first 10 points of the run as Boston's transition layup got the Maroon and Gray back within nine points, 69-60, at the 13:12 mark. On the next possession, Sallee buried one of his three three-pointers in the game to cut the lead to six points.
West Liberty countered with a traditional three-point play before Sallee hit for another triple.
But, WLU climbed the lead back to double-digit with 10:12 remaining, and CU only got inside 10 points once for the remainder of the game—two foul shots from freshman
Kraig Gilbert at the 9:10 mark.
Boston netted his third straight 20-point game with 22 points on 8-for-14 shooting that included a 3-for-4 display from three-point distance. Boston added eight rebounds. Gilbert tallied 13 points and seven rebounds to go with three blocks. Diop went for 11 points, eight rebounds and a game-best four blocks.
Sallee netted 11 points on the strength of his three three-pointers. Junior guard
Kollin Tolbert was held in check to eight points, but went over 1,000 points in his career with a layup at the 2:07 mark of the first half.
Tolbert is the 42
nd member of the 1,000-point club at CU.
The Mountain Lions play their final road game of the regular season when they face West Virginia State 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
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