The Concord men's basketball team's performance Friday on the Charleston Civic Center floor against the University of Charleston was much different than the one it gave last week. That was a welcome sight for the Mountain Lions, considering the stakes were at their highest.
Behind 24 points from Rob Reed and 20 points and nine rebounds from Terry Hopewell, Concord advanced out of the Mountain East Conference tournament quarterfinals with a 75-61 win over the Golden Eagles.
That final was revenge for fourth-seed Concord (20-9), which lost by 30 to Charleston (16-14) at the Civic Center last Thursday. Now the Mountain Lions face national No. 1 West Liberty at 6 p.m. Saturday in the semifinals. The Hilltoppers escaped the quarterfinals with a 73-71 win over Glenville State.
"We didn't change anything from eight days ago," Concord coach Kent McBride said. "We just decided to do it right."
Concord's most important flurry came in the start of the second half. After Justin Coleman's jumper cut the Mountain Lions' lead to 35-32 36 seconds into the half, Concord went on a 13-2 run that included 11 points from Reed. Nine of those points came on 3-pointers, his last deep shot sending the Concord bench into a frenzy and putting CU ahead 48-34.
The Mountain Lions would lead by as many as 18 in the second half, shooting 52.9 percent (27 for 51) for the game.
"We finished No. 1 in the league again in field goal percentage defense," UC coach Dwaine Osborne said, as UC allowed opponents to shoot just 41.3 percent entering Friday's game. "And, unfortunately tonight, we just struggled to guard them. That obviously made for a tough night for us."
UC found itself down early thanks to a long cold streak. After Justin Coleman opened the scoring with a layup 25 seconds into the game, the Golden Eagles didn't score again for 4 minutes, 28 seconds. By then, Charleston was down 8-2 and watching Concord's Reed and Hopewell warm up.
Reed hit all three of his first-half 3-pointers and Hopewell finished the half with 10 points and five rebounds as the Mountain Lions led by as many as eight points. But the Golden Eagles started to claw back into the game thanks in part to Coleman and Jevonte Hughes. Their inside presence helped cut Concord's lead to 31-30 with 1:14 left in the half.
Jametrius Wade made a layup with 3 seconds left and Charleston was unable to connect on a half-court inbounds pass, and the Mountain Lions went into halftime up 33-30 after 20 minutes of physical play. Bodies crashed to the floor with regularity as each team made the other work for every shot.
"Concord is a really physical team," UC senior guard Tino DiTrapano said. "They've got some big guys, some athletic guys, some strong guys. That wears down on your body, trying to get shots, trying to get to the rim. Shots start coming up short and you just don't have enough juice."
DiTrapano led Charleston with 17 points, his first basket of the night putting him over the 1,000-point mark for his career, the 47th UC player to accomplish that. Coleman finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.