URBANA, Ohio – With a one-point lead,
Tehree Horn's heads-up steal with 20 seconds led to an easy layup for
Shaunn Monroe to lift Urbana University men's basketball past Concord University 61-58 on Wednesday night inside the Grimes Center.
Urbana improved to 2-5 (1-2 MEC) overall and picked up its first league win under head coach
Josh Gibson. The Blue Knights, who won just one game in 12 previous meetings with the Mountain Lions, snapped a five-game slide in the series while defeating Concord for the first time on Cawley Court.
Senior guard
Jordan Bradley led a balanced scoring attack with 11 points, three rebounds and two assists. The freshman Monroe filled the stat sheet with 10 points, five boards, four assists and two steals. Junior guard
Drew Thomas also reached double figures with a season-high 10 points and five boards. Senior forward Matt Ashley also chipped in with nine points and five boards off the bench.
For the second straight game, Urbana led for the majority of the contest but allowed its opponent to hang around to grab a late lead in the contest. However, the resilient Blue Knights had an answer for every threat posed by the Mountain Lions.
Mike Ryan's putback layup pushed Urbana ahead by 11, 48-37, with just over 11 minutes remaining. Concord didn't go away though as the Mountain Lions chipped away at the Blue Knights' lead, cutting the deficit to one with under four minutes to play.
Concord eventually took its first lead since scoring the first basket of the game when Malik Johnson knocked down free throws with to put CU ahead, 58-57. With its youngsters stepping up big in this one, Urbana had an answer when
Mario Lacy Jr. cleaned up the offensive glass on the next possession. His layup gave the lead right back to Urbana with just over a minute to play. Concord wouldn't score again.
In the first half, both teams went on a couple scoring runs. Urbana raced out to a 15-6 lead, but Concord climbed back to slice the deficit to two with a 9-2 spurt. Then, the Blue Knights rattled off an impressive 14-3 run, capped by a Thomas trey, which put UU ahead 31-18 with 3:23 remaining in the period. However, Concord used a late 9-0 surge to only trail by four at halftime, 31-27.
UU limited Concord to 32-percent shooting overall and held the visitors to under 30 percent for a good portion of the game. The Blue Knights shot 45 percent from the floor and knocked down 8 of 22 (36%) from three-point range. The Mountain Lions held the slight advantage in rebounds, 39-35. UU outscored CU 24-18 on points in the paint.
Johnson knocked down four 3-pointers and went 7 of 10 at the charity stripe to lead Concord with 21 points. Martin Kelly Jr. was the only other Mountain Lion to reach double digits with 16 points.
UP NEXT: Urbana travels to Glenville State (5-2, 2-1 MEC) for a 4 p.m. matchup on Saturday. The Pioneers are coming off an 87-79 road win over Notre Dame (OH).
