INSTITUTE, W.Va. – The Concord University women's basketball team lost its final Moutnain East Conference road game of the season, 98-67, to West Virginia State at the Walker Convocation Center Wednesday evening.
CU (14-13, 10-9 MEC) maintained the lead for most of the first quarter before WVSU (15-12, 9-10 MEC) stormed in front to end the frame.
Senior guard
Sanaiya Morris got the game started by taking a steal coast-to-coast to score the first points of the game at the 9:00 mark. Then, junior forward
Imani Hickman netted a fastbreak layup and drained a three-pointer on the next possession to extend the advantage to 7-2 two minutes into the game.
The Yellow Jackets knotted the score 9-9, but buckets from sophomore guard
Alexis Frazee and junior guard
Kennedy Scales brought the lead back to six, 15-9, with 4:15 on the clock. West Virginia State regained control, 18-17, with 1:58 left in the period and had a 24-17 edge after 10 minutes.
Junior guard
Abbie Smith scored five consecutive points midway through the second quarter to cut into the deficit, 38-26, with 5:00 left until halftime. However, that would be as close as Concord would get, as the Mountain Lions trailed 53-32 at halftime.
Morris and Smith combined to score all of CU's points in the third, and sophomore forward
Saniya Hymes connected on three-straight three-pointers as time winded down in the fourth, but the Maroon and Gray would fall 98-67 with one game to play in the regular season.
Smith led all scorers in the contest with 22 points and grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds. Hymes logged a new career-high in scoring with 11 points while Morris (10) rounded out double figure scorers. Morris also swatted a career-best four blocks defensively. As a team, Concord recorded a season-high eight blocks.
Concord hosts Glenville State for its regular season finale inside the Carter Center Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
