Concord Defeated at West Liberty

WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The Concord University women's basketball team fell short against West Liberty, 92-82, Sunday afternoon in a Mountain East Conference game at the ASRC.

CU (17-9, 12-6 MEC) scored 49 points in the second half, but was unable to slow the Hilltoppers (9-17, 6-13 MEC) as they netted 55 points after halftime.

The Mountain Lions trailed 37-33 at the intermission, but started the second half by scoring eight straight points to take a 41-37 edge. The next eight minutes featured six ties and three lead changes. Three straight free throws between sophomore guard Kenyah Stubbs and senior forward Olivia Ziolkowski tied the game with 36 seconds remaining in the third quarter, but West Liberty scored the final bucket of the period to take a 61-59 lead to the fourth.

WLU surged ahead with consecutive three pointers to begin the fourth quarter, taking a 67-59 edge. The deficit for CU reached 10 points, 75-65, at the 7:39 mark before the Mountain Lions began their march back into the game.

Over the next six minutes, Concord outscored the Hilltoppers 11-5 as a basket by senior forward Abbie Smith cut the margin to 80-76 with 1:56 remaining. However, West Liberty answered with a traditional three-point play on the next possession to stretch the lead back to seven points.

A three-point play by Smith with less than 30 seconds left got CU back to within 86-82, but it was as close as the Mountain Lions got.

Concord started the game on a 10-2 run and still led 17-10 after 10 minutes. But, West Liberty outscored CU 27-16 in the second.

Smith nearly had her second 20-20 game in the last three games as she finished with 24 points and 19 rebounds. She also passed out a team-best five assists. Stubbs threw in 21 points to go with 11 rebounds for her third double-double of the year.

Ziolkowksi put up 15 points.

Junior guard Kiley Smich netted nine points.

CU held West Liberty to 36.9 percent from the floor, but could not survive 10 three-pointers and 34 made free throws by the Hilltoppers.

The Mountain Lions play their final home game of the season 5:30 p.m. Wednesday against West Virginia State.