Chris Boyce - Varsity Sports

After winning six of their last seven games, one of the hottest teams in the Southern Conference (SoCon) stumbled Monday night, as the Appalachian State University men's basketball team fell victim to visiting Furman University, 70-63.

The Paladins (9-13, 5-7 in SoCon) used stifling defense and clutch three-point shooting to break the Mountaineers' (10-16, 7-6 in SoCon) three-game winning streak.

Furman's Karim Souchu led the Paladins with 18 points, including a huge fade-away jump shot over ASU's Josh Hare with just under six minutes to play in the second half, making the score 52-51 and giving the Paladins their first lead since opening the game with a 2-0 advantage.

Anthony Thomas added three big second half three-point baskets and forward Kenny Ziegler chipped in with 13 points in the winning effort.

Appalachian State was led by a dominant Donald Payne who made nine of 10 baskets from the field for 19 points and Jonathan Butler who added 15 points and six assists.

After leading by as many as 12 points in the first half, the Mountaineers fell victim to the turnover bug that has plagued them all year and ended the game with 22 turnovers, nearly four more than their 18.3 turnover per game average.

After an electrifying alley-oop with Appalachian's Noah Brown on the giving end and Donald Payne on the receiving end, the Paladins went on a 6-0 run capitalized by Souchu's jumper over Hare.

Josh Shehan responded with a layup to put the Mountaineers in front 53-52, but the lead was short lived.

A clutch three-point bucket by Guilherme Da Luz with the shot clock winding down and 4:50 left to play sparked a 10-0 Furman run and gave the Paladins a commanding eight-point lead with only 2:12 to go in the game.

The deficit put the Mountaineers in a tough situation and forced Appalachian to foul for the remainder of the contest. Furman flourished from the flurry of Appalachian State fouls, shooting 83.3 percent from the free throw line in the second half.

Missing from the game was backup guard and offensive/defensive sparkplug Charles Dearmon, who injured his knee in Saturday's victory over Davidson College.

After the game Appalachian State head coach Houston Fancher was not pleased with his team's performance.

"I'm disappointed in our focus for the game, and I'm disappointed in the way we came to start the second half," said Fancher.

"I think Furman outworked us tonight. I think they played harder than we did. Their pressure gave us problems and we didn't have leadership on the court."

Jonathan Butler commented on the team's turnover problems, as well as Appalachian State's poor showing in the second half.

"Coach (Fancher) stressed that turnovers are killing us right now, and that's keeping us from being a great team," said Butler.

"Furman made some big shots. We came out on our end and weren't able to do what we wanted to do ... Furman did a great job picking up the intensity," said Butler.

Furman's win over Appalachian State is even more impressive when compared to their previous outing, a 37-61 drubbing at the hands of College of Charleston.

Said Furman head coach Larry Davis, "I thought tonight the biggest difference in the game was that our pressure got to them a little bit. They've got a couple of young guards playing and their post guys made a few mistakes."

"This was maybe our best job in terms of just moving the basketball and playing team basketball."

The Mountaineers now seem to be locked into third place in the SoCon's North Division while the Paladins stay in fifth place in the South Division.

Up next for Appalachian State is a road match against the Wofford College Terriers Saturday at 7:00 p.m.

The Mountaineers' final home game is Monday against one of the conference's best, UNC Greensboro, in the Holmes Convocation Center at 7:00 p.m.

Women's volleyball club planning trip to national competition

James Nix - Intramural Sports Beat

The Appalachian State University women's club volleyball team is currently planning to compete in the 2001 National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) National Competition, which will be held on April 11-15.

The NIRSA National Championship will be held in Kansas City, Mo.

NIRSA ranks the top 25 teams in the nation each year and invites them to the national competition. Those teams who do not accept are replaced by other teams who send in applications.

As of right now, the women's club is unsure how they are ranked but are certain they are high enough to go to nationals. To ensure this, the club must place highly in its next three tournaments.

"It's really important now at the tournaments we go to that we try and place in the top three," said club president Christie Karow.

The club has mostly placed teams from Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina, so it is difficult to determine how well it will match up against the teams from the northern and western universities.

"This is the first time I think anyone from ASU has tried to go to nationals," said Karow. "It's pretty exciting."

The most recent tournament the ASU women's club volleyball team has competed in was at North Carolina State University (NCSU) in Raleigh.

In this tournament, ASU placed third behind the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in first and NCSU in second.

Last year, the club got its season off to a strong start with two first-place victories in its first three tournaments.

Those victories included ASU's own King of the Mountain Tournament, when the women defeated UNC for the championship and James Madison University's tournament.

After this, the club went into a slump and competed in only two tournaments, both in Greensboro.

En route to Kansas City, ASU has to stay strong and come out on top in the next three tournaments.

This weekend, ASU will head down to Athens, Ga., to participate in a tournament hosted by the University of Georgia (UGA).

The club will face a lot of new teams in this tournament, such as UGA, the University of Florida and Tulane University. Karow sees this as good preparation for the new teams they will face at nationals.

Next, the club will travel to Knoxville, Tenn., to take part in a tournament put on by the Univeristy of Tennessee (UT).

Here also, they will face a numerous amount of new teams, including teams from the University of Kentucky, Purdue University and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

After the UT tournament, the club will compete in what Karow calls the "team's favorite tournament," the Hi-Neighbors Tournament in Asheville.

"It's an invitational tournament," said Karow. "It's a lot of fun; there's a big party and everything."

Only three of the current members of the women's club volleyball team are seniors, so the strength of the team should carry over for more success next year.

Ty Brueilly - Sports Beat

"We might as well take the ball and kick it up into the stands 17 times so we can get those turnovers out of the way," said Appalachian State University basketball coach Houston Fancher after Saturday's victory over Davidson College. "That (the turnovers) are something I just can't find an answer for, and I'm still digging for it," Fancher said of the team average of 17.9 turnovers per outing.

On Monday night as Appalachian hosted the Furman University Paladins they still had no answer for those 17 turnovers per game, as the Mountaineers lost 70-63. On top of their average of 17, the Mountaineers added five more to that, for a total of 22 turnovers.

These turnovers were divided equally at 11 per half. The difference between the two halves was that Appalachian did things to make up for them in the first.

They didn't give up after a turnover and they didn't let a turnover get them out of a winning frame of mind.

Jonathan Butler knocked down a pair of three pointers while Noah Brown had a long range three of his own. Donald Payne wouldn't quit in the first half and ended it with 11 first half points.

After two of Appalachian's first half turnovers Butler made up for it with two blocks, which eventually led to Appalachian possessions and also to four Appalachian points. After a pass thrown out of bounds that was meant for Mike Patten, the forward ran down the court on defense to force a Furman turnover.

Patten then immediately turned around and ran back on offense to catch a beautiful alley-oop pass from Butler and turned around in mid air to throw it down reverse style over a couple of Furman contenders.

All of these things the Mountaineers did to make up for their first half turnovers gave them a lead by as much as 12. They went into the locker room at halftime claiming a 32-25 lead.

The second half was a different story entirely, as the first play could perfectly sum up the whole second half.

It started with a steal by Furman freshman Jorge Seraphim who ran down the court and popped up a three pointer that hit nothing but the twine of the net, and in less than a minute and a half Seraphim launched another three pointer and gained the same results.

After a shot clock violation called on the Mountaineers, Furman's Karim Souchu took advantage of this extra possession and nailed yet another three pointer, as the Mountaineer lead was cut to only one point, 37-36.

It was downhill from there for the Mountaineers but the total opposite for Furman who found four more three-point baskets in the second half. Fancher said, "I'm disappointed in our focus for the game and the way we came out in the second half ... we came out flat."

Furman ended up with seven three pointers in the second half alone, three from Anthony Thomas, two from Seraphim, one from Guilherme Da Luz, and one from Souchu.

Butler said of these three pointers, "Furman hit some big shots, and then after that we didn't get back down and execute the way we wanted to ... we came out and played relaxed instead." Fancher said of being relaxed, "We are in no position to ever relax against anyone in this league."

If the seven three pointers of the second half had been substituted for seven regular two-point field goals, there would have been an overtime battle because the Mountaineers lost by seven.

Furman didn't get the lead until there was only six minutes left to go in the game, but as soon as they did they kept on capitalizing on the Mountaineers' turnovers by scorching the three-point shots and eventually defeating the Mountaineers. Fancher said, "I was really disappointed in that we didn't guard their shooters."

Fancher also said, "That was the key of the ball game; we turned the ball over 22 times. When we shoot the ball over 50 percent from the field, 41 percent from the three point line, 76 percent from the free throw line, those are numbers that win ball games."

"If we cut those turnovers in half we would have come out on top ... you just can't look over those turnovers."

Appalachian ended with only two players in double-digit scoring, Payne with 19 and Butler with 15.

Appalachian also ends their four-game winning streak and are now 7-6 in the Southern Conference. The team next travels to Wofford College this Saturday.

ASU softball team soon to start inaugural season

Andy Morris - Sports Beat

A fresh start and a chance to make a name for itself awaits the Appalachian State University softball team in its inaugural season.

"There's no past history here," said head coach Willie Rucker. "It's all up to me to start the history and the reputation."

Junior Amber Joyner, a native of Rocky Mount, transferred to Appalachian from Louisburg College. Joyner believes there a few benefits to starting a new team.

"You don't have any expectations to live up to," she said. "You make up your own standards."

Rucker, previously the head coach for the Carolina Diamonds of the Women's Professional Fastpitch League, took the helm of a new program because of the strength of the university as a whole.

"I really liked what ASU had to offer the students and athletes," she said. "There's a good support staff, outstanding administration and good support from the chancellor."

Despite the benefits of a new program, there are drawbacks as well.

Rucker's team includes eleven freshman but does not have any seniors.

"We're very young, but we're talented," said Rucker. "There's going to be a lot of young mistakes, but with talent, I believe we can learn quickly."

Joyner, an infielder, said that the lack of seniority leadership has not been a problem for the team.

"We all get along really well," she said. "It's been much better than I thought it would be."

Another problem that surfaces with the creation of a new team is the lack of proper facilities. For this season, the softball team has to play its home games at the Watauga County Complex.

"It's a challenge being off-campus because we have to work dual with the Parks and Recreation Department," said Rucker. "It's not a problem, but normally you wouldn't have to deal with that."

Amber Handy, an outfielder from Huntersville, believes that many first-year teams also have to deal with a lack of respect from their opponents.

"You don't really win a lot of games your first year, so people don't take you seriously," said the freshman.

However, Joyner sees this lack of respect as an advantage for the Mountaineers.

"I think we will surprise a lot of people with our competitiveness," she said.

Rucker focuses the team goals for the season on building team unity and strength.

"We have to learn to work as a unit and not be individuals," she said. "We're hopefully going to establish ourselves as a competitive team in the conference and the state."

Joyner wants the Mountaineers to look past the wins and losses column throughout the season.

"We need to have fun and not depend on winning and losing but getting better with every practice and game," she said.

Appalachian opens the Southern Conference season against the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a doubleheader on March 13 at 2 p.m. The Mountaineers' first home game is a doubleheader against Furman University on March 24 at 1 p.m. in the Watauga County Complex.