App State men’s basketball played the Coastal Carolina University Chanticleers in the High Country for their Sun Belt home opener and won 67-49. The game got off to a quick start for the Chanticleers with a long 3-pointer from forward Reggie Hill. The Chanticleers continued this momentum with a steal from forward Nadjrick Peat. The Mountaineers were able to match with some fire of their own coming off of a senior guard Alonzo Dodd 3-pointer followed quickly by a fast break layup out of junior guard Eren Banks.

The Black and Gold began to trade buckets with the Chanticleers tying the score at 16, as back-to-back fouls allowed the Chanticleers to tie the game up with a little over 11 minutes left in the half. In this short time the Black and Gold were out-rebounded by the Chanticleers 12-9, with the Mountaineers only making 1 offensive rebound out of their total 9.

With time winding down in the half both teams went cold and the Chanticleers went 2-14 from the field and the Mountaineers were 2-10. With the scoring drought finally ending after graduate student guard Kasen Jennings tied the game at 22 with five minutes to go. The Black and Gold tied the game with 1.8 seconds left in the half after a Dodd free throw made the score 28 all.

Coming out of halftime the game continued to be a slugfest as each team traded field goals and free throws; Dodd made 3 straight from the charity stripe to bring his total points up to 12 on the night. 

At just under 12 minutes, the Black and Gold started to run away with the game, as they went on a 15-1 run over the span of five minutes with huge contributions from Dodd, sophomore guard Jason Clark Jr., Jennings and redshirt sophomore center Luke Wilson. This gave the Mountaineers a 13-point cushion with nine minutes left to go.

This hot shooting continued for the Black and Gold as Jennings went nuclear, going 8-16 from the field and 3-5 from three, having a brief stretch where he couldn’t miss. The Mountaineers continued to pull away, racking up a 14-point lead with just over two minutes to go. After this there was nothing the Chanticleers could do as the Black and Gold kept their foot on the gas to win 67-49.