In their second-to-last home game, the Mountaineers fell to Old Dominion 81-62 Thursday night, dropping their overall record to 14-13.
After trailing by one at halftime, the Monarchs took advantage of a 28-12 third quarter, taking control as the Black and Gold couldn’t recover as they were outrebounded 54-35.
“At the half, I think our team was feeling pretty good in terms of the things we identified that we needed to clean up,” said head coach Angel Elderkin. “But, Old Dominion came out in that third quarter and they really just set the tone with rebounding.”
(Landon Williams)
As a team, App State shot 26.8% from the field and 26.1% from three, compared to Old Dominion’s 45.7% from the field and 50% from beyond the arc. The Monarchs capitalized on 32 points in the paint while the Mountaineers had eight.
“I say a lot, chance favors the aggressor and I thought Old Dominion was super aggressive,” Elderkin said.
Junior guard Emily Carver led in scoring with 14 as she shot 4 for 9 from the field, including three three-pointers.
Senior guard Faith Alston recorded a team-high six assists and 10 points, but shot 2-13 and committed three turnovers.
Graduate student guard Mariah Fraizer and sophomore forward Rylan Moffitt each totaled a team-high eight rebounds. Moffitt added two blocks, one steal, one assist and five points to her night, while Fraizer scored five points on 2-5 shooting.
Sophomore guard Alexis Black eclipsed double-digit points with 10 on 1 for 3 shooting and eight free throws. Black also totaled three rebounds and one block.
Offensively, Old Dominion had four players eclipse double-digit point totals as forward Brenda Fontana and guard En’Dya Buford each had 17.
The Monarchs defensively held App State to their lowest point total since Jan. 27 against James Madison.
“Our offense has been on fire lately and they put that fire out tonight, so I just have a lot of credit for the way that they win games,” Elderkin said.
With Thursday’s loss against fourth-placed Old Dominion in the Sun Belt, the Mountaineers conference record dropped to 7-8, ranking ninth in the conference with three regular season games remaining.
App State is set to face James Madison in their final home game Saturday for senior day as fifth-year senior guard Taylor Lewis, Frazier and Alston will be celebrated. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. and the game will be streamed on ESPN+.
