The Appalachian State women’s basketball team looked to continue their six-game winning streak over the weekend as they began a two-game road trip.
Southern Conference rival Chattanooga (16-3, 9-1 SoCon) was up first and the Mocs proved to be a challenging opponent for the Mountaineers (12-5, 6-3 SoCon).
Chattanooga handed the Black and Gold a heartbreaking loss, 59-55, Saturday night.
Things didn’t improve the next game against Samford (10-9, 7-3 SoCon). It was another close match, however the Mountaineers were, again, unable to pull out a win, losing 66-64.
Despite both matches being close in final score, the Mountaineers need to get back into the swing of things if they want to continue to stay up in Southern Conference.
Conistency a concern for the Mountaineers
During the past two games, the Black and Gold have had trouble playing consistently.
The team seems to take most of the first half to get adjusted to the pace of the game, but then come out on fire in the second half.
The Mountaineers were down by 13 points against Samford and down by eight against Chattanooga at the half.
Against the norm, Appalachian never shot more than 40 percent from the field in either game. Further hurting them, they averaged 7.7 percent from 3-point distance, an area where they are usually strong.
“It’s a shame to walk out of this with a loss, but I cannot say that Chatt beat us today,” women’s head coach Darcie Vincent said in an interview with Appalachian Sports Network. “I wouldn’t say Chatt is a better team than us, but they were better tonight.”
Despite losses, women still leaders in SoCon
Once Appalachian turns on the heat, they tend to blow away the competition in scoring.
Anna Freeman leads the SoCon in scoring at 17.1 points per game, according to soconsports.com.
Not surprisingly, seven players average double digits in scoring.
Against Chattanooga, three Mountaineers posted double digits, Maryah Sydnor (12), Katie Mallow (12), and Courtney Freeman (10). The game against the Samford Bulldogs was no different, as Maryah Sydnor put up 18 points, followed by Courtney Freeman (13) and Katie Mallow (11) contributions, according to goasu.com.
Appalachian also lead the SoCon in assists, steals, rebound margin, field goal and free-throw percentage.
“This is just indicative of what happens, and right now it’s snowballing all at one time and right now we need to refocus,” Vincent said.
The Mountaineers will try to turn things around Saturday, Feb. 2 when they take on Elon at home and prepare for the second half of the season.
Story: KAITLYN THRUSTON, Senior Sports Reporter