App State women’s basketball visited division rivals Marshall and Coastal Carolina this Thursday and Saturday, with both efforts coming up just short. The Mountaineers fell by scores of 64-72 and 67-70, respectively.

The trip began Thursday night in Huntington, West Virginia, with the Mountaineers entering the night one game behind the Thundering Herd in the Sun Belt standings. 

App State started strong offensively, going on an 11-0 scoring run in the first quarter led by graduate student guard Brooke Bigott and redshirt senior forward Janay Sanders. Further contributions by sophomore guard Emily Carver, junior guard Faith Alston and Sanders put the Mountaineers up 18-9 at the first break. 

Three-pointers from Alston and Carver in the second quarter helped App State hold on to the lead, and the team went into the locker room up 33-25. 

Marshall would not stay down for long, however, as they outscored the Mountaineers 20-15 in the third quarter to cut the lead down to three with 10 minutes remaining. 

The Thundering Herd put up another strong quarter offensively in the fourth with a 27-point quarter. That stretch put the game out of reach for App State, resulting in an eight-point Marshall victory.

From there, the Mountaineers traveled 470 miles south to Conway, South Carolina, to battle with the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers in a Saturday matinee. 

An exciting first quarter saw four lead changes between the Mountaineers and Chanticleers. Three-point baskets from freshman guard Alexis Black and sophomore guard Zada Porter guided App State to a 21-18 lead at the conclusion of the first. 

The Mountaineers remained hot from behind the arc in the second, with a three from Carver opening the scoring. Another strong quarter offensively led to a nine-point advantage for App State at halftime. 

A 19-point third quarter for Coastal helped the Chanticleers get back into the ball game, but buckets from redshirt junior forward A’Lea Gilbert, Sanders, Porter and Alston kept the Mountaineers out front 51-48 with 10 minutes remaining. 

The highlight of the fourth quarter was Sanders surpassing the 1,000-point mark on her collegiate career between her time at App State and her freshman year at La Salle. 

That milestone bucket was not enough to fend off a 22-point fourth quarter for the Chanticleers, with App State falling short by three. 

The Mountaineers will return to the Holmes Center Thursday at noon to face off against Georgia State.