Concord Erupts in Second Half for 81-71 Win over West Liberty

ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University women's basketball team used a 54-point second half to down Mountain East Conference opponent West Liberty, 81-71, inside the Carter Center Saturday afternoon.
 
CU (14-12, 10-8 MEC) fell behind by 11 points in the first half, but came out of the halftime break energized to recapture the lead.
 
The Hilltoppers (8-18, 6-13 MEC) kept their advantage around the double-digit mark until halfway through the third quarter. Senior guard Skylar Davidson cut the deficit to six, 44-38, on a second-chance effort at the 6:01 mark. Then, senior guard Sanaiya Morris followed up with a three-pointer to trim the margin to three with 5:37 on the clock.
 
Both teams traded points until the two-minute mark, when a steal from Davidson led to a fastbreak layup by Morris to tie the game, 50-50, for the first time since the start of the second period. Then, with 1:19 left to go until the fourth, Davidson netted another layup that gave the Mountain Lions the lead, 54-52. WLU jumped back ahead, 55-54, but a jumper from junior forward Abbie Smith as time expired saw CU lead 56-55 with 10 minutes left to play.
 
The Maroon and Gray maintained its lead to begin the fourth, with junior forward Imani Hickman hitting a pair of free throws to grow the lead to four at the 6:38 mark. Then, sophomore guard Madison Young broke her scoring silence on the afternoon with a three-pointer to take a seven-point lead, 68-61, with 5:59 remaining.
 
Davidson tacked on a pair of free throws to swell the margin to nine with 4:21 left, and Smith completed a three-point play to give CU a double-digit lead, 79-69, with 1:22 to play and eventually sealed a double-digit win, 81-71.
 
With CU leading 6-5 early on in the first quarter, Hickman scored seven points during a 11-0 CU run to grab an early 17-5 edge with just over two minutes to play in the frame. Part of Hickman's scoring was a three-pointer at the end of the run that gave Concord its largest lead of the game.
 
West Liberty hit a three-pointer to end the first quarter and used that momentum to take a 38-27 lead into halftime.
 
Davidson led all scorers with 24 points in the game and scored 20 points in the second half. She also finished with six steals, one short of her career-best effort. Morris posted her second 20-point scoring game of the season, hitting the mark by going 8-of-13 from the field. Hickman (16 points, 14 rebounds), and Smith (13 points, 10 rebounds) both recorded double-doubles and rounded out double figure scorers.
 
CU heads to West Virginia State for its final MEC road game Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.