There are things in life you just don’t want to do.
Oversleep for a job interview. Jump out of an airplane without a parachute. Forget an anniversary.
Get into a shootout with West Virginia State.
The Concord Men’s Basketball team found out why it’s not a good idea to play a run-and-gun with the Yellow Jackets – the third-highest scoring team in the nation -- Saturday night at the Carter Center.
The Mountain Lions set season highs in points, field-goal shooting (.700), three-point shooting (.684), and assists (21), yet still lost, 119-113.
Defense was few and far between. Concord was 42-60 from the field and 13-18 from beyond the arc (the 13 made three-pointers were another season high), but WVSU countered by shooting .592 (42-71) and .560 from the arc (14-25).
Concord would lead by as many as 12 points early, but the Yellow Jackets would close out the first half with a 24-12 run to lead 58-56 at the break. There were six lead changes and six ties in the first 20 minutes.
An 11-2 run put the Jackets up 85-75 with 11:06 remaining, and Concord would get no closer than the final margin.
Rafee Smith topped Concord with a career-high 30 points. The junior from Cincinnati was a scalding 12-14 from the field.
Damien Tunstalle added 25 points, including a 5-7 showing from three-point range.
Chance Smith shot 6-7 from the floor and finished with 14 points. Cory Willard was 4-6, 3-5 from the arc, to finish with 13 points. Gentry Shrewsbury added 12 points on 6-7 shooting.
WVSU’s Josh Miller led all scorers with 34 points on 12-18 shooting.
Concord-killer Jason Emerson was an astounding 8-10 from three-point range in a 26-point performance. In two games against CU this season, Emerson averaged 25.5 ppg and was 15-25 (.600) from the arc. Against everyone else, those numbers are 7.9 and .386.
Concord fell to 5-19, 4-15 in the WVIAC. The Yellow Jackets leave Athens at 22-3, 18-2.
The Mountain Lions play Kanawha County’s other WVIAC team, the University of Charleston, Monday night at 8:00 pm EST at Eddie King Gymnasium.
Classic Rock 102 The River (102.3 FM WMTD) will broadcast the game, with steaming audio at www.theiver102.com, following its coverage of the CU-UC women’s game.