SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – In a battle of two top-five teams in the Mountain East Conference, Notre Dame College comes out victorious over Concord University, 88-79, on Thursday evening. NDC outscored Concord 51-40 in the second half after trailing at halftime.

The game featured multiple runs, and Notre Dame (19-6, 15-4 MEC) got off to the hot start. Junior Bruce Hodges III and freshman Isaiah Sanders each hit three points to begin the game. Redshirt-senior Will Vorhees then knocked down back-to-back layups and was fouled on the second attempt. He made the free throw to put Notre Dame up 11-0 with 16:24 to go in the first half.

Concord (16-9, 11-8 MEC) missed their first five shots and turned the ball over twice in the opening three and-a-half minutes. They would eventually get two layups to go down, but the Falcons did not let up. After a missed jumper, NDC hit four consecutive shots to increase the lead to 14 points, 21-7.

Notre Dame would increase their lead to 17 points, before Concord started their run. Malik Johnson hit two shots and then Tommy Bolte scored the next six CU points. Jair Rodgers, who averages 21.6 points-per-game, scored his first and only bucket of the first half with a three at the 5:44-mark, cutting their deficit to six points.

Isaiah Sanders and head coach Tim Koenig talked about how NDC had to defend Bolte and Rodgers throughout the game.

"Get to the help side," Sanders said. "He (Bolte) likes to shoot, but he also likes to drive so we had help side defense. Rodgers, we know he's a good shooter so we put Bruce (Hodges) on him, one of our best defenders, if not the best. We wanted him to pressure and stay close. They made shots, they're great players, but we were better on defense."

"I don't know too many guards who are better than Bolte," Koenig mentioned. "He's really tough to handle, but I thought we did a really good job and he still had 26 points, nine assists and only one turnover, he's just that good. We didn't want to help off of Rodgers, I thought we had two or three mistakes defensively, but for the most part, we played him really tough. He's a big key for them, when he makes shots, they're a different team."

Johnson knocked down a three pointer for Concord with under 1:30 to go, which made the score 37-35, in favor of the Falcons. He then sunk a layup at the 35-second mark to tie the game. NDC's redshirt-junior Drew Scarberry missed a three pointer after some contact, which led to a fast break layup by Bolte, putting the Mountain Lions on top 39-37, at halftime.

Vorhees led Notre Dame with 19 first half points. Concord shot 50-percent and Bolte had 11 points, on 3-of-6 shooting, and six assists. Johnson also had 11 points.

The Falcons tied the game four times early in the second half as the teams went back and forth. Sanders then slammed down a dunk with 16:19 to go in the game, to put NDC up by one point.

"My teammates keep telling me to shoot with confidence and then my role, rebound, defend and the rest of it, just comes with that (confidence)… You learn over the year as a freshman. While I was out with a concussion, I saw my teammates playing hard and I didn't think I played as hard as I could have in the first half of the season, so I'm trying to play harder now," Sanders said, after the game.

However, Notre Dame could not expand their lead over four points before CU took the lead back. Bolte knocked down a three pointer with 12:18 remaining, to give his team a 60-58 advantage. After that shot, NDC began another run with a jumper by sophomore Halil Parks to tie the game and then a layup by Vorhees, which gave the Falcons a 62-60 lead. The Falcons did not give the lead back for the rest of the game.

"They doubled Will in the first half and we didn't execute and didn't have anyone cutting to the rim," Koenig stated. "So early in the second half, we executed and Bruce gets a wide open layup and Isaiah got a couple layups. We have to get cutters and we have to execute when Will touches it. Seeing the ball go in really helps us."

Rodgers hit a three to pull Concord into a one point game, however, Concord missed their next two three point attempts and NDC took advantage with an 8-0 run to go ahead 79-70 with 5:06 remaining.

Vorhees had 23 second half points on 69-percent shooting. He finished with 42 points, on 59-percent shooting, 11 rebounds and five assists. He is averaging 33.2 points-per-game over his last 10, and has three games over 40 points. He now has scored more career points than any Division II player since 2000.

Sanders had 15 of his 20 points in the second half. He finished the game shooting 70-percent from the floor. Hodges added 10 points, five rebounds and six assists. The Falcons shot 68-percent in the second half, as a team. They finished the game shooting 54-percent. Notre Dame now has 10 consecutive home wins, which is the longest streak in, at least, a decade for the program. They have won six straight, overall.

"We just beat a really good team," Koenig said. "Big contributions up and down the roster. Halil Parks gave us a lift off the bench. Angelo Cugini has only been in a half court practice (since his injury) and he was out there, talk about unselfish. He did a really good job at the end of the first half. I was really impressed with our effort. And then finishing the game with loose balls and rebounding, was big for us. Obviously, Will Vorhees brought it home… I knew our guys were aware of this challenge and we stepped up."

For Concord, Bolte, who leads the conference with 29.3 points-per-game, finished with 26 points and nine assists. Johnson gave the Mountain Lions 19 points and six rebounds while Simun Kovac had 12 points and eight rebounds, off the bench.

Notre Dame will wrap up the home portion of their schedule against the University of Virginia's College at Wise on February 23. The game is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.