App State men’s basketball traveled to Pensacola, Florida, to play in the Sun Belt Tournament, losing their first game against Old Dominion 61-56.

It was both teams’ third matchup of the season, with the teams splitting the previous two.

Senior forward Jalil Beaubrun caught a pass from junior guard Dior Conners and dunked it to give the Black and Gold its first points of the tournament.

The start of the game was back and forth, with graduate student forward CJ Huntley giving App State 10 early points.

The Mountaineers’ offense was rolling in the first eight minutes but couldn’t find any stops on the other end. Junior guard Alonzo Dodd hit a floater to give the Black and Gold a 19-16 lead.

Old Dominion took the lead for the first time in eight minutes and App State struggled to find offense. 

The Mountaineers reclaimed the lead with a three from junior guard Jamil Muttilib. It was his sixth point of the game, already the most in a game for him since Nov. 24.

App State went into the locker room with a 36-30 lead.

The Black and Gold had a hot start to the second half, but once again struggled to find stops against the Monarchs, leading by just 2 at the under-16 timeout.

Old Dominion guard Robert Davis drilled a three to give the Monarchs their first lead of the second half.

Redshirt senior guard Myles Tate made his first basket of the game with just over 12 minutes left in the second half. Tate is the Mountaineers’ leading scorer but struggled up to that point.

App State took the lead again, and Muttilib was a big contributor with his 12 points.

Old Dominion captured the lead after a 7-0 run.

App State couldn’t recover from the Monarch’s run and ended up falling 61-56. It was the final game of the season for the Mountaineers, and they will look ahead to the transfer portal and to the 2025-26 season.