BUCKHANNON – If close only counted in basketball!

The West Virginia Wesleyan Lady Bobcats were very close to their first victory of the year only to come up just short against the Concord Mt. Lady Lions by a 77-70 score here Sunday afternoon in a Mountain East Conference battle.

Trailing 69-65 with a minute left on the clock, Stacy Remer fired in a three-pointer to bring Wesleyan to within one at 69-68.

After forcing a Concord turnover, Mari Stewart was fouled on her shot and calmly drained two free throws to give Wesleyan a 70-69 lead with 29 seconds left.

Wesleyan was called for a defensive foul and Jacqueline Kestner made both foul shots to give Concord a 71-70 advantage with nine seconds left.

Wesleyan went inside for their last shot but it didn't go down and they were called for a foul on the defensive rebound by Concord.

Following the foul, the Wesleyan bench was called for two technical fouls.

Melea Smith made all four technical free throws and Rachel Artrip made the two free throws on the rebounding foul to make the final deficit look worse than it actually was.

The loss dropped Wesleyan to 0-6 overall and 0-4 in the MEC.

"We are getting better every game," remarked Wesleyan head coach Michael Bari after the game. "It's hard to look at that when we are 0-6 and say we are getting better.

"I think we are getting better but we just have to get over that hump. I thought today we had a chance at the end, we just weren't able to get it done. If you look from the first game to now, we are a lot better."

Wesleyan took their first lead of the game when Adrian Cunningham turned in a three-point play after being fouled on her jump shot to treat the Lady Bobcats to a 7-6 advantage with four minutes gone.

Concord rattled off the next nine points for a 15-7 lead before Alexa Mortenson made a jumper to make it a 15-9 game.

Concord would hold the lead until the final seconds of the first half when Andrea Lee uncorked a three-pointer to give Wesleyan a 38-36 lead with 30 seconds remaining.

A pair of Concord free throws tied the game at 38-38 at the break.

Wesleyan would regain the lead on a three-pointer by Courtney Small that gave the Lady 'Cats at 49-47 advantage with five minutes gone in the second half.

A trey by Freiermuth extended the Wesleyan lead to 52-47.

Concord scored the next five to deadlock the game at 52-52. The two teams would trade the lead back and forth before setting up the final minute of action.

Freiermuth came off the bench to record a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Stewart was the other Lady Bobcat to reach double digits with 12 points.

Mortenson added nine points and Small contributed eight.

Wesleyan shot the ball from the floor at a 31.4 clip hitting 22 of their 70 shots.

Wesleyan will return to action this Wednesday at Mercyhurst in a non-conference game with a 6 p.m. tip.

"Overall we have to find an identity," concluded Bari. "Hopefully we can play a good game up at Mercyhyurst. Then we will take our Christmas break and evaluate everything and get after it again in January.