Box Score On the game show Wheel of Fortune contestants can buy a vowel to help them solve the puzzle.
Saturday evening the WVSU men's basketball team would have loved to have been able to buy an extra minute or two.
In the end though a frantic comeback attempt fell short as the Yellow Jackets (2-1, 0-1 MEC)dropped a 109-105 decision to visiting Concord.
Things could not have looked much worse for the Jackets in the opening minutes as the Mountain Lions (3-0, 1-0 MEC) hit their first seven shots, including three from 3-point range, to take an 18-3 lead less than four minutes into the contest.
The visitors did not cool down too much the rest of the first half as the lead reached 25 points at the 6:12 mark. Concord ended up hitting 60.5 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes including an incredible 10-13 (76.9 percent) of their 3-point tries.
The Yellow Jackets never folded their tents though and the lead was down to 18 at 59-41 by halftime.
After that the Jackets put together one of the best halves of basketball they have played in awhile.
They scored 64 points on 55 percent shooting, hit 57.1 percent from 3-point range, and committed just three turnovers while running the floor at full speed every chance they had.
The Mountain Lions' lead began to dwindle.
With 10:17 to play WVSU cut the lead to 15.
With 5:51 to play the Jackest cut it to nine.
With 3:29 to play the lead was five.
With 28 second remaining a
Tyrie Elliott 3-pointer cut the lead to one at 103-102.
After two Concord free throws a
Brent Bauer driving layup made the score 105-104.
But with just 12 seconds remaining the Jackets had to foul to try and get the ball back and the Mountain Lions hit their free throws down the stretch to hold on.
Senior
Markee Mazyck led the Yellow Jackets with 34 points and seven rebounds.
Robert Fomby added 15 points.
Bauer, a freshman point guard, finished with 12, all coming in the second half.
Awwal Reid and Frank webb contributed eight and six points respectively, all also coming in the final 20 minutes.
Next up the men host UVa-Wise at 7:30 p.m. Monday.
