App State was back in action Thursday as they traveled to Conway, South Carolina, to face off against the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. The Mountaineers used a 37-23 second-half advantage to pull away from the last-placed team in the Sun Belt Conference. Redshirt senior guard Myles Tate and grad student forward CJ Huntley paced the Black and Gold with 17 points each.
Junior guard Alonzo Dodd and redshirt freshman center Luke Wilson also helped the Mountaineers on the defensive end tonight. Dodd finished with 11 points to go along with 1 block and 2 steals while Wilson had 8 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocks. Wilson’s 18 minutes played were his most since Dec. 3.
After a close first 12 minutes of play, junior guard Dior Conners hit a three with 8:48 remaining in the opening half to give App State a 18-17 lead. Conners finished the game with 6 points on 2-7 shooting from the field. The Mountaineers would not allow the Chanticleers to lead again.
The Mountaineers struggled shooting the ball early as they were only able to make 6 of their first 15 shots up until the eight-minute mark in the first half. The Chanticleers shot just as poorly, only making 6 of their first 20 shots in that same time frame.
Closing the half, neither team was able to score from the 7:05 mark till 3:43 was left in the half. Sloppy play and the inability to put up layups was the plague for the Black and Gold but Dodd and Tate dragged the team out of the mini-slump for a 6-0 run just before the end of the first half with the Mountaineers leading 27-23
The second half began with the two teams trading baskets with Coastal Carolina tying the game back up at 30 after 2:45 seconds of play in the half. Shooting struggles continued as App State went without a field goal for almost three minutes during the middle of the half.
When the under-16 minute media timeout hit, head coach Dustin Kerns was challenging his team to play better and more cohesive down the stretch. The team responded well, shooting 9-14 from the floor after the official’s timeout while holding their opponents to 4-17 to finish the game.
The Mountaineers went on two separate 8-0 runs in the last nine minutes to put the game away. The first run was led by Dodd and Wilson finding easy layups at the rim to push a 44-40 lead up to 52-40. A quick 4-0 run by Coastal Carolina brought the matchup back to single digits but Conners and Tate each hit a three with Tate hitting free throws in between to put the game away.
The Mountaineers won the game 64-46 behind a massive second half that saw a complete team effort with four players scoring 6 or more in the half. Conners, Tate and Huntley played all of the final 20 minutes of play.
App State’s monster second half was led by their ability to get to the line. They shot 14-17 in just the second half alone, good enough for 82.4%, miles above the team’s 65.8% average on the season. The team also shot 45.5% from the field and 100% from three in the second half.
This win moves the Black and Gold to 9-4 in conference play and 16-9 overall. The win also puts App State into a four-way tie for second place in the Sun Belt. South Alabama, Troy and James Madison make up the other three teams tied at 9-4 in conference.
No matchups against the other three teams listed are available for the Mountaineers to control their own destiny and they must rely on fate and beating teams lower than them for potential seeding in the Sun Belt tournament.
