After the loss in the conference opener to Louisiana on Wednesday, App State men’s basketball traveled to Denton, Texas, to take on the North Texas Mean Green on Friday. They lost the game 68-64.
Junior guard Alonzo Dodd, junior guard Dior Conners, freshman forward Michael Marcus Jr., redshirt senior guard Myles Tate and graduate student forward CJ Huntley started the game for the Mountaineers.
Huntley became a member of the 1,000-point club on a free throw with 16:05 in the first half, the 37th member in App State history.
After struggling early in the previous game against Louisiana offensively, the Black and Gold responded nicely with 14 points in the first six minutes against a strong North Texas defense. A 12-2 run opened up a 7-point lead for the Mountaineers early on in the game.
Huntley was the star of the show for App State in the first half on the offensive side of the ball. He had 11 points in the first 12 minutes.
The Mountaineers’ scoring slowed down as the first half came to a close, only scoring 2 points and no field goals in the final six minutes of the half. The Mean Green stormed back from there and went into the locker room with a 33-28 lead over the Black and Gold.
Senior forward Jalil Beaubrun ended the drought for the Mountaineers on a dunk with 16:52 in the second half, their first field goal made in almost 10 minutes.
App State went down by 15 as the offense slowed to a crawl, and North Texas could do what they wanted on both sides of the ball. The turnovers were racking up and it looked like the Mean Green were going to pull away easily.
The Black and Gold weren’t done yet. Once the deficit got to 15, the Mountaineers stormed back on a 10-0 run to make it a 5-point game. After an exchange of baskets from the two teams, a steal by Tate that led to a Huntley tip shot made it a one-possession game.
North Texas responded, and didn’t let App State get any closer, getting the lead back to 8 with 5:32 left. The Mountaineers weren’t done however, and got the lead back down to 4 with 3:29 remaining in the game.
As the time was dwindling, Tate did not let the game end without a fight. He had 19 points in the second half.
North Texas was perfect from the line in the final minutes of the game and held on to a 68-64 win.
App State will close the book on 2024 and open up 2025 with conference play. The Mountaineers’ next game will be on Jan. 2 against Troy. It will be their first home game against a Division I opponent since Nov. 24. The game will tip off at 6:30 p.m. and will be streamed live on ESPN+.
