Concord Cruises to 93-78 Victory vs. WV Tech - Beckley, Bluefield & Lewisburg News, Weather, Sports

Four players scored in double figures including sophomore guard Thomas Brown, who netted a career-high 23 points to lead the Concord University men's basketball team to a 93-78 win against West Virginia Tech Monday night at the Carter Center.

The non-conference victory, Concord's second consecutive win, improves the Mountain Lions' record to 5-1 on the season. West Virginia Tech falls to 8-6 with the loss.

The 93 points scored by Concord was a season-high as were its 46 rebounds. The Mountain Lions out-rebounded West Virginia Tech by a commanding 18 boards (46-28). CU also held advantages in steals (9-7), blocks (3-1), points in the paint (42-26), second chance points (14-9) and bench points (21-6). Concord also forced the Golden Bears into 18 turnovers.

As a team, the Maroon and Gray shot 50 percent (34-for-68) from the field overall and 42.1 percent (8-for-19) from three-point range.

Brown scored his 23 points off of an 8-for-15 shooting night from the field, including three three-pointers, and a 4-for-7 performance from the free throw line. In addition to his game-high in points, Brown also made a game-best three steals.

Senior forward Damien Tunstalle continued his string of strong offensive performances with 19 points to go with a game-high 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Not to be outdone, sophomore guard Mike Boyd tallied a career-high 18 points and passed out five assists. Boyd was 7-for-7 from the foul line Monday night, improving his season average from the charity stripe to 78.8 percent.

Rounding out Concord's double-digit scorers was a 10-point effort from sophomore forward Jordan Davis. Davis, who grabbed six rebounds as well vs. WV Tech, has scored in double figures every game this season. Freshman forward Nick Moyer chipped in five points, five rebounds and three assists.

West Virginia Tech started the game on a 22-14 run through the opening 8:12 of the first half before Concord broke out on a 30-19 run over the remainder of the period to take a 44-41 lead into halftime. The run was highlighted by Boyd's layup with four seconds to play in the half. Tunstalle and Boyd combined to score 21 points in the opening 20 minutes of play.

The second half was all Concord as the Mountain Lions pushed its lead out to 16 points (70-54) after 10 minutes of play thanks to Brown's 12 points out of the locker room. Concord's lead grew to as many as 23 points (80-57) before West Virginia made a 17-4 run to trim the CU lead to 84-75 with two minutes to play in the game. However, any thoughts of a comeback were quickly dashed as Concord converted seven of their eight foul shots in the in the final stages of the game to propel itself to the 93-78 victory.

The Mountain Lions will look to extend their winning streak to three games when they play West Virginia Wesleyan 4:00 p.m. Saturday in a West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest.