Chris Boyce Varsity Sports

After dropping a 61-56 loss to the East Tennessee State University Buccaneers Jan. 15, the Appalachian State University men's basketball team knew it would get another chance to beat the Bucs this season.

But a follow-up 72-67 defeat was not the result the Mountaineers had hoped for.

Fresh off a two-game winning streak showcasing the best basketball Appalachian State has played since last year's Southern Conference (SoCon) Championship, the Mountaineers stumbled on their own poor rebounding and a rock-solid ETSU zone defense Saturday afternoon.

ETSU's Dimeco Childress' clutch shooting at the end of the game made the difference for the Buccaneers, and his critical four-point burst with a little more than two minutes left sealed the victory.

With the score 62-58 in favor of ETSU (12-7, 7-1 SoCon) with 2:40 left to play, Appalachian StateÕs Charles Dearmon hit a floating jumpshot and drew contact to put Appalachian State (6-15, 3-5 in Socon) down by only two points, 62-60.

Dearmon's free throw attempt was no good, and ETSU answered on their next possession with a clutch 15 foot jumper by Childress, giving the Bucs the 64-60 lead with 2:18 left to play.

Then with the Mountaineers unable to answer offensively, Childress put the nail in the coffin with a slicing lay-up through Appalachian State's interior defense.

The bucket put the Bucs up 66-60 with 1:18 left to play, a deficit too large for the Mountaineers to overcome.

"In crunch time guys just make plays," said Childress. "Some guys got it going, some guys don't. We've got a lot of playmakers on this team."

The first half was played closely with neither team seemingly able to take the advantage and both teams struggling with turnovers.

ETSU turned the ball over 12 times in the first half but finished the first half shooting 59.1 percent from the field and led 36-33 over the Mountaineers.

Appalachian State received strong play from 6-foot -11-inch freshman Brian Boxler who in 17 minutes scored 10 points, registered seven rebounds, and added two blocks in the losing effort. "(Boxler) gave us some good, good minutes today," said head coach Houston Fancher.

"Brian's gonna be a very good player here. He's gonna continue to get better and he knows that it's a process for him and we're working game-by-game and practice-by-practice to get him more and more comfortable competing in the games."

Also big for the Mountaineers was junior guard Charles Dearmon who led the Mountaineers in scoring with 19 points.

"Charles had a scoring reputation in high school. Obviously he wasn't a big part of their scouting report and they didn't play him well off the drive. He was aggressive with the ball and he had to be," said Fancher.

With usual offensive threat Noah Brown on the bench for most of the game in foul trouble and leading scorer Josh Shehan ineffective, Appalachian State's Dearmon and point guard Jonathan Butler picked up most of the offensive slack.

"We had to look to alternative sources today," said Fancher. "Without Shehan and without Noah, we had to have some other people step up and we did."

Butler finished the game with 17 points and seven assists.

One of the big problems for the Mountaineers, especially in the second half, was boxing out after free throw attempts which allowed the Bucs numerous second chance opportunities.

"They're a very physical basketball team," said Boxler after the game. "They used that against us. They're very good around the post. They got a lot of second shots and offensive boards and they boxed us out very well." Another problem was Appalachian State's trouble defensively at the end of the game, failing to come up with critical defensive stops.

"We had some defensive breakdowns down the stretch but I give East Tennessee State credit for doing a wonderful job executing late in the game," said Fancher. "They made a couple of key plays and had some big offensive rebounds on us in the second half that I thought hurt us."

Despite the loss, Charles Dearmon is confident that the team is on the right track after what has been a tough season and says that all the turmoil from earlier in the season is behind them.

"It starts with practice," said Dearmon. "If we come out and practice hard then it rolls over to the game. With the distractions we had, that was a part of it. We're over that and now everything's going well for us.

"Even though we lost tonight I still feel good about our team and feel that we still have a chance at winning the conference."

Club Rugby opens new season with shutouts

James Nix Clubs and Intramural Sports

On Saturday, the Appalachian State University men's and women's club rugby teams opened up their new season with wins against the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC).

This match marked the entrance of ASU into the North Carolina Rugby Union (NCRU) Division I.

The men started the day off with a fairly slow first half. However, things picked up when William Elder gave ASU its first points by scoring a try.

ASU then missed the conversion to keep the score to 5-0. In the second half, Roger Fay scored the second try of the game followed by another missed conversion bringing the score to 10-0.

"I was in the right place at the right time," said Fay. "I had some new duties during this game and I think that scoring proved that I can get the job done."

After UNCC failed to answer ASU's second try, Robbie Blythe scored, giving the Mountaineers a 15-0 lead.

The follow-up conversion tapped the goal post and bounced out, denying ASU the extra point. UNCC offered up one last threat late in the second half when they moved deep into ASU's try zone.

A focused and determined defense is all it took to stop them, however, and ASU got its first win. "It was a real good game, well fought, with a lot of hard hits," said Jason Going of UNCC.

"It's always a pleasure playing with these guys, theyÕre just a good bunch of guys and they play real well."

"I thought we gave a tremendous effort for our first game in Divison I," said ASU head coach David Rogers.

"Like any first game, there are some problems to be worked out, but we'll get to those. Otherwise IÕm just really pleased with the win."

The only downside to the shutout was two injuries that dealt a hard blow to ASU. Thad Teague had to leave the game in the first half due to a shoulder injury and Elder left in the second half due to a leg injury. "I'm concerned because we lost two of our key players,Ó said Rogers.

"Any time you lose athletes of that caliber you have to either replace them or adjust your tactical plan." Shortly after the men finished things up, the women's team took the field and spared no mercy to UNCC.

Kit Thompson led the girls in scoring with two trys. Sydney Rolland, Bri Young and Tonya Fletcher all scored a try as well. Along with the five trys, Adrian Edwards kicked in two conversions, giving ASU a 27-0 victory over UNCC. "It was an awesome game,Ó said Thompson.

"I think we could have played a little better. We were getting tired about halfway through, but we had a good game, everyone stepped up. We had a lot of rookies come in and score during the last 20 minutes."

Next weekend the rugby team will travel to Raleigh to face North Carolina State University. The team will spend this week preparing for this more difficult match up.

"For us to be successful next weekend in Raleigh, we need to shut down State's offense and keep the ball from getting outside,Ó said Rogers. "I think if we hit hard early on, we can make them run with fear. I think our prospects are pretty good."

As for the rest of the season, the club looks to keep winning and a possible shot at the NCRU championship in March.

"Its going to be a challenge," said coach Rogers. "We had some bad injuries today and we'll have to see how those shape.

If we have more injuries like we had today, halfway through the season we won't have any players left. Injuries are the wild card.Ó

"For a lot of us, this is our last semester," said Fay. "It's all or nothing. We've got a lot of young and new guys, and that's good for our future, but for the seniors, this is it."

"We've got a great group of guys on this team," said Rogers. "But if we want a chance at any type of championship, we must improve our rucking skills and our continuity."

Tyler Brueilly Sports Beat

Saturday, Jan. 29, was a career afternoon for three members of the Appalachian State University men's basketball team but still not enough to pull away from the East Tennessee State University Buccaneers as Appalachian fell 72-67.

The career day included junior guard Jonathan Butler, who now has a career high of 17 points, junior guard Charles Dearmon whose career high is now 19 points, and freshman center Brian Boxler who stepped up tremendously for a 10-point career high.

Appalachian State head coach Houston Fancher said, "We had to look toward some alternative sources today. ... Charles stepped up, Jonathan stepped up and obviously Brian stepped up as well."

In spite of these feats, the Mountaineers still had trouble taking care of the Bucs. It wasn't that they didn't play as hard as they could for the entire forty minutes of the game; it was just late key plays, foul trouble and an inability to break down the Bucs zone defense that led to their loss.

A major blow to the Mountaineers was when freshman guard Noah Brown, averaging nine points, three rebounds and 30 minutes a game, was forced to the bench with two fouls in less than three minutes of play. He would not step foot on the court for the rest of the half. Brown would end the game with only 10 minutes of play.

With Brown on the bench Dearmon stepped up, taking the team on his shoulders and bringing some excitement to the game. Time after time he used his base-line jumper, fade away, or slashing lay-up to aggravate the Bucs' defense and also keep Appalachian in the game.

Fancher said of Dearmon, "We brought him in for Noah and he came in and gave us some aggression right off the bat. He is a very capable scorer and he proved that today."

Butler stepped up tremendously also, being as aggressive as he has been all season, but the most aggression came too late in the game when he drove into the lane three times with nothing on his mind but two points for the team.

Boxler came into the game and within a few minutes became the momentum giver. After getting a few surprise baskets, Boxler saw a Buc on his way to a lay-up, so he quickly runs down the court and times it perfectly for the ball to be right at the backboard when the Bucs guard Cliff Decoster released it from his hands. Boxler then threw the ball with force, pinning it to the backboard and making it bounce enough for it to get into Mountaineer hands. The Mountaineer crowd went wild and the bench erupted.

With all of this play, still something was missing that Appalachian sorely needed to seal a victory, going into the half only down by three. This something was Brown. Boxler said of Brown, "He is a very talented basketball player. We looked to him on the outside to hit key shots and without him thereÕs this void that we have to try and fill."

Appalachian also needed a solid performance by Josh Shehan who came up shy of his average performance, with only four points and three rebounds. With only 10 active players Appalachian really couldn't afford to have two players not have a solid game.

Fancher said, "We have to make sure every night all ten play and all ten have a positive contribution. Today we only had six or seven do that."

Without Shehan in the game it crippled Appalachian's defensive rebounds off of free throws. And in the waning minutes of play, Appalachian let the Bucs have five second opportunities after their own missed free throws.

Instead of the original one-point free throw the Bucs could have made, they were put in the position that they could score two instead and the Bucs were able to do this three times. Fancher said, "They (ETSU) had some big offensive rebounds late in the second half that I thought hurt us, a couple on the free-throw line and a couple key offensive rebounds in the lane that hurt us as well."

"Those are just big plays that go unnoticed, but in the overall scheme of things, if you look at the things that beat you, these are the things that really stand out to me."

Appalachian also had a bit of trouble late in the second half with East Tennessee's zone defense. It seemed as if they were just forcing shots and couldnÕt find any openings.

Guard Matt Jones fired up an air ball followed by a blocked three-pointer, and Josh Hare fired up an air ball also. All three of these shots were in the waning minutes of the game.

Boxler said, "We took some crazy shots at the end and they got the rebound. We got one shot and that was it."

This marks Appalachian's second loss to East Tennessee this season and both times it was a five-point difference. Appalachian needed Brown with no foul trouble and needed Shehan to step up and play his original type of basketball and grab some of those missed Buc free throws.

If those two players made a little bit more of a solid performance, Appalachian could have easily gotten the six points they needed for a victory.

For Appalachian's next game, each player must contribute solidly and they must not give up second opportunities after free throws.

They must adjust to the zone defense, as they did to defeat Western Carolina University and Davidson College.