ATHENS – The Concord University women’s basketball team held West Virginia Wesleyan at 17 points in the first half by beating the Bobcats, 72-42, Saturday afternoon at the Carter Center in a game of the Mountain East Conference.
Prior to the game, senior striker Madison May was recognized in a ceremony as a solo senior in the 2020 class for Concord.
May had a warm start as he scored 10 points in the first quarter to bring the Mountain Lions (18-8, 14-6 MEC) to a 22-6 lead after 10 minutes. However, the WVWC (3-23, 1-19 MEC) remained dormant in the second quarter as Concord was able to pass the Wesleyan 14-11 only in the second quarter.
Out of the first half, the Bobcats cut the gap advantage by 19 points down to 15 at 7:02 in the third quarter.
However, Concord held Wesleyan at six points for the remainder of the period, scoring 16 points of his own for a 51-28 lead in the quarter.
Concord’s lead swelled to 38 points, 69-31, at 6:19 in the fourth quarter while May hit his penultimate goal on the field to bring his total to 22 points. The Mountain Lions were satisfied with the victory of 30 points.
May ended her day with 24 points to go with seven rebounds. Junior striker Riley Fitzwater recorded his 16th double double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Second-year guard Maggie Guynn added nine points while junior striker Tamra Scott came off the bench with seven points.
Early in the second half, May moved up to fourth in the CU’s all-time standings, and now has 1,676 career points.
Ten different Mountain Lions scored in the game while second guard Gracie Robinson handed out five of the 12 Concord assists.
Concord fired 45.2 percent (28 by 62) off the floor while holding Wesleyan at 26.2 percent (17 by 65). The Mountain Lions had a 46-34 lead over glass and forced 17 Bobcat turnovers.
MEN’S GAME
Behind the 64 percent shoot, the Concord University men’s basketball team was led by West Virginia Wesleyan, 98-83, on Saturday afternoon in a Mountain East Conference game at the Senior Day Carter Center.
Prior to the game, senior guards Trey Brisco and Martin Kelly Jr. were honored by the men’s basketball program.
Concord (10-16, 7-13 MEC) came out firing when three three second-year guard pointers Brandon Kennedy in the first 6:40 of the game allowed Mountain Lions to open an 18-11 lead over Wesleyan (10- 16, 9-11 MEC).
Despite the hot start, Mountain Lions lagged behind the Bobcats, 24-22, with 8:53 remaining in the first half.
After the teams went back and forth and with Concord maintaining a 32-29 lead with 5:44 remaining in the first 20 minutes, the Mountain Lions finished half in a 15-7 race to climb 47-36 to half time.
With the Bobcats still within range of the Mountain Lions command, 55-43, with 17:20 remaining in the contest, Concord passed Wesleyan 30-13 in the next 9:32 of the contest to climb 85-56.
But the Bobcats weren’t made with a rally attempt since they scored 16 of the next 17 points and reached 14 points, 86-72, with 3:38 left.
Three minutes to go, freshman guard Ethan Heller and Kelly Jr. crushed Bobcats’ return as the pair hit three back-to-back spikes to restore a 94-72 lead for Mountain Lions.
After firing 56 percent in the first half, Concord recorded a flash of 72 percent (18 of 25) in the second half and finished the game 32 out of 50.
Kennedy scored the best 22 points of his career as he finished 7 out of 11 from the distance of three points, a triple shy of tying the MEC single-game mark this season. Brisco scored 19 points and distributed eight best team assists.
Guard / junior striker Malik Johnson scored 11 of his 16 points after half-time. Heller and Kelly Jr. each had 11 points in the competition. Sophomore guard Seth Brown added nine points for 4 out of 4 shooting.
Led by Kennedy, the Mountain Lions made 15 three pointers in just 25 attempts (60 percent). Concord has assisted in 22 of the 32 shots taken, marking the third time in four games that Mountain Lions have received 20 or more assists.
Mountain Lions welcome West Virginia State to the Carter Center on Wednesday with the women’s game at 5.30pm. and the men are at 7.30pm
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