App State men’s basketball returned home Thursday to play Troy for their first game against a Division I opponent in over a month. It was their first conference game in the Holmes Convocation Center. They lost the game 69-61.
Junior guard Alonzo Dodd, junior guard Dior Conners, senior forward Jalil Beaubrun, redshirt senior guard Myles Tate and graduate student forward CJ Huntley started the game for the Mountaineers.
The Mountaineers started the game hot. After the Trojans hit a three-pointer on the first possession, the Black and Gold responded with a 10-0 run with Dodd and Tate connecting from deep.
Troy got right back into the game after hitting 3 three-pointers in a row and taking a 23-10 lead. App State has had problems in the last few games with long scoring droughts and were caught in another lull for four minutes.
App State ignited the offense in the final minutes of the first half. Three dunks in a row from the Black and Gold, including one from Huntley at the buzzer, made it 33-30 at the half in favor of the Trojans.
There were seven different players on the scoring sheet for the Mountaineers in the first half, with Tate leading the way with 7.
App State took their first lead of the second half after a three-pointer from Conners made it a 39-38 game.
The game became physical, with 7 fouls called in the first four minutes of the second half. But the Mountaineers kept firing from deep, and Dodd connected to make it a 42-41 App State lead with 14:25 remaining.
The Black and Gold cooled off again, going over three minutes without a field goal, and the Trojans took a 51-47 lead.
The back-and-forth nature of the game continued and neither team scored consecutive baskets. At the final media timeout, Troy led 57-56.
Troy burst out to a 6-point lead, but Tate hit a three to cut the lead in half with 1:04 remaining.
App State was frigid down the stretch, only hitting 1 of their last 10 shots, and Troy won the game 69-61.
Tate was the leading scorer in the game with 20 and he continues his stretch as the team’s top scorer.
