ERIE, Pa. — Former Woodrow Wilson High School standout Damien Tunstalle scored 20 points and the Concord University men's basketball team defeated Mercyhurst 82-69 Friday night on day one of the Mercyhurst College Invitational. The season-opening victory was sparked by a 27-12 second half run that helped CU earn the road win.

Tunstalle, who finished just five points off of his career-high, was 5-for-9 from the field, with three makes coming from 3-point range as well as a 7-for-8 performance from the foul line. He also added two steals.

Sophomore forward Jordan Davis and freshman guard Jake Bischoff both finished in double figures as well for Concord. Davis scored an efficient 10 points on 5-for-5 shooting while grabbing four rebounds.

Bischoff provided a spark off the CU bench with four made three-pointers on his way to a 14-point collegiate debut. Senior forward Gentry Shrewsbury, an ex-Wyoming East all-stater, added nine points and four rebounds.

Concord held a 31-8 advantage over Mercyhurst in bench scoring thanks to solid efforts from Bischoff, sophomore guard Paul Byrd (six points), sophomore forward Alex McGlothin (six points) and sophomore guard Thomas Brown (five points). Byrd also tallied team-highs of five assists and five rebounds.

Mercyhurst came out of the gates hot, opening up a 10-point lead (15-5) through the opening seven minutes of action, but Concord was able to battle back to tie the game at 22-22 with 7:54 to play in the first half thanks to 17-7 spurt that saw five different Mountain Lions score during the stretch. Both squads traded buckets before heading into halftime tied at 36-36.

Concord wasted no time setting the tone for second half. Two minutes into the period, senior guard Eric Bailey (Westside) drained a jumper on a pass from sophomore guard Mike Boyd, who finished with seven points and three assists, to give the Maroon and Gray a two-point lead (40-38) that it would never relinquish.



No. 1 West Liberty 105, Urbana 66

CEDARVILLE, Ohio — The No. 1-ranked West Liberty University men’s basketball team lived up to its preseason billing here Friday night with a 105-66 throttling of Urbana (Ohio) in a mutual season opener at Cedarville University’s Don Callan Classic.

Senior All-American Alex Falk and junior All-WVIAC standout Cedric Harris led West Liberty’s scoring barrage with 18 points each.



Ohio Valley 93, Millersville 92

 VIENNA — Ashton Brown had a huge night, scoring 43 points on 15-of-21 shooting from the floor in the victory.

He drained 10-of-12 foul shots and hit three buckets from downtown. For good measure, Brown pulled down nine rebounds and dished out seven assists to lead the Fighting Scots in those categories.

 

W.Va. Wesleyan 79, Shenandoah 54

BUCKHANNON — West Virginia Wesleyan opened its season with a 79-54 win over visiting Shenandoah Friday evening.

 Noah Cottrill led the victors with a game-high 22 points. He also dished out a game-high seven assists in his WVWC debut. Soren Dossing tallied 16 points, including 12 coming from deep. Kelsey Williams registered 15 points and had seven boards in just 23 minutes of action. T.J. Thompson added 10 to go along with five boards.



West Virginia State 76, Kutztown 72

ERIE, Pa. — Howard Douglas III came off the bench to score a team-high 15 points.

Juan Johnson’s charity toss with 2:29 to play gave the Yellow Jackets the lead for good. His foul shot came after a technical foul on Kutztown.



Gannon 70, Glenville State 67

VIENNA — Glenville State dropped a hard fought 70-67 decision to Gannon in the season opener for each team.

The Pioneers were paced by Jamel Morris’ 19 points and five rebounds. He also had three assists in the loss.