With Boone covered in snow, App State took on long-time rival Georgia Southern Saturday afternoon, defeating the Eagles 82-74.
Senior guard Faith Alston became the 27th member of the 1,000 point club when she crossed the milestone in the final seconds of the game. Alston finished with 24 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Junior guard J’Mani Ingram and sophomore guard Alexis Black were the only other Mountaineers in double figures. Ingram posted 23 points and six rebounds while Black had 18 points and five rebounds.
Junior guard Emily Carver missed her eighth consecutive game due to injury.
“After playing Georgia Southern just seven days ago, it was really fresh with our team and what we needed to do to come out with a win,” said App State head coach Angel Elderkin. “All in all the toughness that we came out with, and the pace that our team is playing at is really a problem for our opponents. I felt that we wore them down, we played to our identity and we got the win.”
In the first quarter, the Black and Gold fell behind early before some outside shooting closed the gap. The Mountaineers kept close with the Eagles, tying the contest at 18 before Georgia Southern took a two-point lead at the end of the quarter.
App State opened the second quarter on a 7-0 run to take a 25-20 lead. The Mountaineers never trailed again and used a 28-point quarter to surge ahead 46-36 at halftime.
Alston and Ingram combined for 18 in the second quarter.
Coming out of halftime, the Black and Gold cooled off from their hot second quarter. The team shot 35% from the field and went 0/5 from three. This allowed the Eagles to close the gap as the Mountaineers held a six-point lead at the end of the third quarter.
App State maintained their lead throughout as they sank 14/17 of their free throw attempts in the quarter. After a late turnover, the Black and Gold dribbled out the clock for a 82-74 win.
The Mountaineers shot 37% from the field, 20% from three and 76.7% from the free throw line. App State outrebounded Georgia Southern 54-41 leading to 17 second chance points.
The Black and Gold committed 19 turnovers, which led to 18 points off turnovers for the Eagles.
“We talked a lot this week about playing together as a team. We also talked about taking care of the basketball. We did have 19 turnovers, so that’s something that we have to clean up,” Elderkin said.
App State travels to Norfolk, Virginia Thursday to take on Old Dominion. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+.
