Bluestone News

Concord Gears Up for Road Test Against Wheeling

 After a 113-97 loss to nationally-ranked West Liberty, the Concord University men's basketball team looks to bounce back as it opens a two-game road trip at Wheeling 4:00 p.m. Saturday in a Mountain East Conference game.

LIVE COVERAGE
The Wheeling Sports Information Department will have live streaming video and live in-game statistics 

Live Stats
Live Video

SERIES HISTORY: Wheeling leads 34-19

LAST FIVE MEETINGS
February 9, 2022: Wheeling 82 - Concord 80 (Wheeling, W.Va.)
January 8, 2022: Concord 92 - Wheeling 84 (Athens, W.Va.)
February 15, 2021: Concord 74 - Wheeling 73 (Wheeling, W.Va.)
February 12, 2020: Concord 101 - Wheeling 75 (Athens, W.Va.)
January 11, 2020: Wheeling 74 - Concord 71 (Wheeling, W.Va.)

SEVERAL SCORERS
The Mountain Lions recorded a season high in points on Wednesday night as it shot 54.5 percent from the floor—the second highest shooting percentage this season. Concord had an even distribution as senior forward Jevon Laidler (20 points) and senior guard Ethan Heller (18) both went for a season high with Laidler netting his fourth career 20-point game. However, five more players finished in double figures for the Maroon and Gray. Graduate guard Lual Daniel Rahama notched his third double-double of the season with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Sophomore forward Amare Smith scored 11 points, and junior guard JJ Harper, fifth-year senior forward Da'Vion Moore and junior guard Jordan Wooden all had 10 points. It was the fourth time that CU has had at least five double-figure scorers in 2022-23, but the first time with six or more players in double digits since February 2020 versus Wheeling.

RUN N' GUN
The 97 points versus West Liberty comes just one game after Concord rolled up a then season-high 93 points in a win over Frostburg State. Concord enters Saturday having scored at least 80 points in seven straight games and 22 of the last 24 games. CU is averaging 83.4 points per game, and at its current pace would be the second-highest scoring team in the seven-year tenure of head coach Todd May—the 2018-19 team averaged 86.5 points per game. Four different players are averaging at least 10 points per game over the last seven games: Heller (10.1), Laidler (12.5), Harper (13.7) and Rahama (15.1). CU posted 92 points in an eight-point win over Wheeling, and 80 in a two-point loss, last season versus WU.

GO TO THE GLASS
Despite the loss to West Liberty, Concord dominated the boards versus the Hilltoppers as it held a 42-27 advantage. The Mountain Lions held West Liberty to four offensive rebounds, a team that's averaging 13 offensive boards per contest. CU grabbed 14 of its own rebounds on the offensive glass, turning those into 17 second-chance points. With 12 rebounds, Rahama took over the MEC lead in rebounds per game (9.1). Concord ranks 30th in Division II in rebounding margin (+6.9) while Wheeling has a negative rebounding margin of 1.5. However, the Cardinals outrebounded CU in both games last season, including a 38-30 advantage at the McDonough Center.

FULL 40
Five of the last six meetings between Concord and Wheeling have decided by nine points or less with three games decided by one possession. In CU's 92-84 win at home last season, Laidler found his footing as he scored 18 points on 8-for-12 shooting and added eight boards. Rahama posted 11 points in 27 minutes off the bench at WU as Wheeling grabbed an 82-80 victory. Heller was crucial in Concord's last win at Wheeling, 74-73, in February 2021. The Thornville, Ohio native threw in 23 points on 8-for-13 shooting as the Mountain Lions held off a late charge from WU. Heller posted 10 points and four assists in Wheeling's 74-71 win at home in January 2020.

NEXT MAN UP
Wheeling relies heavily on its starting five to score as the WU starters score nearly 75 percent of its points, and more specifically Marcus Johnson and John Korte. The duo is sixth and seventh in league in scoring with Korte posting 17.1 points per game and Johnson scoring 16.4 points per game. The Mountain Lions are getting approximately 70 percent of their points from the starters, but six different players have led CU in scoring this season. Harper has led the Mountain Lions in scoring four times, and is the highest scoring player in the MEC that has yet to start this season. Harper is averaging 12.7 points per game. All told the Concord reserves are averaging 30.1 points per game.  

BURNING THE NETS
The Maroon and Gray enters Saturday having shot 44 percent or better in six straight games, including topping 53 percent in the last two contests. And CU has had no trouble finding its stroke against Wheeling recently. In last year's victory, Concord shot 52.2 percent from the floor and canned 14 three-pointers while shooting a robust 42 percent from three-point distance. Even in the two-point loss against the Cardinals last season, the Mountain Lions still shot 47.5 percent from the floor and 50 percent from three-point distance (13-for-26). CU enters Saturday shooting 45.9 percent from the field for the season, sixth in the MEC, while Wheeling is giving up the fourth-highest field goal percentage this season in the MEC, 47.3.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
4- Concord hasn't scored 90 points in three straight games in four seasons—November 19-December 1, 2018.

27- Combined ties (13) and lead changes (14) last year between CU and WU at Wheeling.

46- Point differential (56-10) in bench scoring last year as Concord got 29 and 27 points, respectively, in two games versus Wheeling.

WHEELING AT A GLANCE
Overall Record: 2-11
MEC Record: 0-7
Home Record: 2-4
Away Record: 0-5
Neutral Record: 0-2

SCOUTING THE CARDINALS
Of the 11 losses for the Cardinals, nine have come by nine points or fewer, including six by five or fewer points. And two of the losses for WU came in overtime—against Shepherd and West Virginia Wesleyan. Wheeling native Brent Price rounds out the double-figure scorers for WU as he records 14.2 points per game. The Cardinals are scoring the third-fewest points per game (75.3) in the MEC, but shoot 45 percent from the field. Wheeling is coming off a 100-76 loss to Glenville State Wednesday in which the game was tied at halftime.   

Original source can be found here