App State fell to 1-1 in a 91-78 loss against Northern Illinois Saturday. This marked the first stage of the Sun Belt-MAC Challenge as the other matchup will be announced at a later date.
Coming off a 87-49 victory in their regular season home opener against Oakland City Tuesday, the Mountaineers were seeking their first road win of the season, but fell short.
Black and Gold had four players in double digits, including graduate student forward Donovan Gregory, who led the team with 17 points. Junior forward Christopher Mantis finished with 16 points, senior forward CJ Huntley ended the game with 14 points and sophomore forward Justin Abson had 11 points.
The Black and Gold led 8-2 before the first media timeout, as the Huskies went on a 20-5 run and kept the lead for the rest of the game.
The Huskies were led by junior guard David Coit, who ended the game with 27 points.
The Black and Gold only made three first half three-pointers compared to six by NIU.
App State looked to turn things around in the second half, but went cold shooting only 20% from three-point range and finished the game shooting 26% compared to 39% by the Huskies.
Northern Illinois finished shooting 50% overall from the field compared to the Mountaineers’ 41%.
Despite Northern Illinois’ shooting advantage, the Black and Gold led the Huskies in rebounds, turnovers and steals.
Although App State suffered defeat, there were positive takeaways from the 13-point loss.
The most important takeaway from Saturday’s game is the performance from the bench. For the second consecutive game of the season, App State led their opponent in bench points, outscoring the Huskies 25-10 and Oakland City 52-21 Tuesday.
The second takeaway was the Mountaineers’ ability to outscore Northern Illinois in second-chance points at 18-6 and points in the paint at 42-32. This is the second consecutive game the Black and Gold have outscored their opponents in second-chance points and points in the paint.
The Mountaineers will continue their road trip in Corvallis, Oregon, where they’ll look to turn things around against the Oregon State Beavers Tuesday. Tip-off from Gill Coliseum will be at 10 p.m. and can be streamed on the Pac-12 Network.
