ATHENS, WV - The Lady Tigers (4-17) were back on the road this afternoon for their second matchup of the season against the Mountain Lions (11-10) of Concord University. Salem entered today's matchup looking for revenge after losing to Concord in Salem earlier this season 67-75. 

Concord struck first after generating a steal on the defensive end, leading to a transition layup to put the Mountain Lions up 2-0. Carine Pinkney had a response ready as she came down the court and nailed a shot from range to put the Tigers up in the early goings of the game. Concord continued to look for offense at the rim which put pressure on the Tiger bigs. Salem kept up with the offensive pace of the Mountain Lions for the first few minutes of the first quarter before Concord began to gain some momentum. Salem surrendered a 5-0 run to the Mountain Lions which put the Tigers into a hole. Luckily Elena Pericic was able to stop some of the bleeding by producing on the offensive end. With the Tigers down nine Emerson Wells nailed a three before the quarter ended to get the Tigers back into a two-possession game. Concord quickly got some of those points back with a last-second basket at the rim that took the Tigers into the break down 10-18.

Offense came at a premium to start the second quarter of play with neither team scoring until the under-eight-minute mark when Skylar Davidson converted one of her free throw attempts for Concord. The Tigers responded on the following possession with another triple, this one courtesy of Elena Pericic. Once both teams had seen the lid removed from the rims the offense began to flow more. Carine Pinkney got to the free throw line for the Tigers where she converted both her attempts to cut into the Concord lead. Skylar Davidson continued to be a problem for the Tigers before the half as she was the engine that made the Mountain Lion offense run. Anna Machytkova checked in for the Tigers and immediately made an impact by getting to the free-throw line and getting some of the Mountain Lions into foul trouble before the half. Down eleven just before halftime, Anete Bluma came up with a big three-pointer to trim the deficit to single digits for Salem. Trying for a last-second attempt Concord's Kennedy Scales drew contact on her shot attempt which sent her to the free throw line where she went one for two. After one half of play, the Tigers found themselves down 22-31.

Concord came out firing in the second half, going two for two on three-point attempts on their opening possessions of the half, both from Jazz Blankenship. The Tiger offense continued to respond as they had all afternoon, but it was clear fatigue was starting to set in. Concord continued to get out in space and create open looks which kept all the pressure on Salem to continue their scoring groove, and when they slowed down the Mountain Lions pounced on the opportunity. Neither team was able to generate any offense in the last minute of the third quarter which led to the Tigers entering the fourth quarter down 38-53.

The Tigers opened the fourth quarter with a 5-0 run which got the Concord lead down to ten and opened the door for the Tigers to make a comeback. Fouls continued to haunt Salem as they sent Concord to the charity stripe eight times in the fourth quarter and the Mountain Lions converted on seven of those attempts. Concord only scored two points in the fourth quarter that didn't come from the free-throw line. Salem started to heat up from three in the latter half of the fourth quarter, but it was too little too late for the Tigers. Salem dropped their second of the season against Concord with a final score of 64-53.

The Lady Tigers are back in action this Wednesday, February 14th for their Valentine's Day matchup against the Yellow Jackets (13-9) of West Virginia State University. The game will be played in Salem at 5:30 pm. 

SALEM STAT LEADERS

Points: Elena Pericic (18)

Assists: Elena Pericic (3)

Rebounds: Elena Pericic (13)

Blocks: Elena Pericic (3)