Concord Wins Fourth Straight, Beats WV State 81-77 - Beckley, Bluefield & Lewisburg News, Weather, Sports

The Concord University men's basketball team won its fourth consecutive game and moved one step closer to clinching a home game in the first round of the upcoming West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament by defeating West Virginia State, 81-77, Monday night at the Carter Center.

Concord's fourth win in as many tries improved its record to 15-9 overall and 11-9 in the WVIAC. West Virginia State fell to 10-16 overall and 7-13 in the WVIAC.

Sophomore guard Mike Boyd led four Concord players in double figures with a game-high 18 points. Boyd was just 3-for-6 from the field, but he forced his way to the foul line for 14 free throw attempts, converting 12 of the shots. He also dealt out eight assists, committed no turnovers and grabbed five rebounds in a great all-around effort for the Cincinnati, Ohio native.

The inside-outside combination of senior forward Damien Tunstalle and sophomore forward Jordan Davis scored 16 points each. Tunstalle was his usual reliable self from the three-point range, making 4-of-8 shots from long range while Davis went 6-for-9 from the field with 10 of his points coming from inside the paint. The duo also combined for 12 rebounds off of seven boards from Tunstalle and five from Davis.

Freshman guard Cam Shannon made two three-pointers and five foul shots, including one with two seconds left in the regulation that ensured the CU win, to finish with 11 points. Shannon also made three steals.

Freshman forward Nick Moyer had a workman like effort with eight points, five rebounds and a game-best four steals. Senior guard Eric Bailey scored seven points and sophomore guard Thomas Brown chipped in five to round out Concord's scorers.

CU held advantages over West Virginia State in rebounds (38-33), steals (13-6), assists (18-12), turnovers forced (14-10) and second chance points (19-8).

The Mountain Lions seemed poised to run away with the contest early when they opened up a 10-0 lead over the Yellow Jackets in the first three minutes of play before West Virginia State slowly climbed back into the game, eventually tying the game at 30-30 with 3:38 to play in the half. WVST ended the period on an 11-8 run to take a 41-38 lead into the break.

Tunstalle and Shannon both made a pair of three-pointers in the opening 20 minutes, finishing the half with eight and seven points respectively to pace CU.

Concord trailed for the first four minutes of the second half until a layup by Tunstalle capped off an 8-4 Mountain Lion run to pull the Maroon and Gray ahead 46-45 with 15:59 to play. The next six minutes of play saw the five lead changes until a pair of successful free throws from Boyd gave Concord a one-point, 60-59, lead that it would never relinquish with nine minutes to play.

As was the case in Saturday's win over Ohio Valley, Bailey once again went on a scoring spree when CU needed one. He made a three-pointer and took a pass from Shannon in for a layup to give Concord its largest lead of the half, 67-59, with 7:27 showing on the clock.

West Virginia State would make one last run, cutting Concord's lead down to 75-74 at the 1:27 mark in the period. However, the Mountain Lions' defense held strong while Boyd and Shannon made several key foul shots down the stretch to preserve the 81-77 win.  Shannon was fouled with just two seconds remaining with CU up by only three points. He proceeded to make 1-of-2 free throws to put the contest out of reach.

Boyd and Davis scored 23 of Concord's 43 second-half points.

Anton Hutchins had 17 points for West Virginia State.

Concord will take its winning streak into Glenville State 7:30 p.m. Thursday before coming home to close out the regular season against Bluefield State on Saturday.