Spartans
conquer Mountaineers in frantic final minutes
Fancher:
slow second-half start to blame in key SoCon loss
Chris Boyce
Varsity Sports Beat
In a showdown
between two teams burdened with two-game losing streaks and the
Southern Conference (SoCon) Tournament only two weeks away, something
had to give.
Unfortunately,
it was the Mountaineers' defense that gave way to UNC Greensboro's
Courtney Eldridge in a 63-60 loss at the Holmes Convocation Center
Monday night on ASU's last home date of the season.
Eldridge's 27
points, including a crucial turnaround jumper at the end of the
game, put a disappointing cap on what had been an exciting night
of Mountaineer basketball.
The Mountaineers'
Josh Shehan scored 19 points and added nine rebounds and Matt Jones
chipped in with 16 points, but it wasn't enough to break what is
now a three-game Appalachian State (10-18, 7-8 in SoCon) losing
streak with the team's final regular season game Saturday at the
Virginia Military Institute (VMI).
For the second
time in three games, Appalachian State let a large first-half lead
evaporate and suffered the consequences in the end.
The consequences
resulted in a frantic finish with both teams answering big shot
after big shot.
After the Spartans
(16-10, 10-5 in SoCon) had taken a two-point lead with 3:56 left
to play, Matt Jones stole the ball and fed it to Jonathan Butler
who found a streaking Josh Shehan for a riveting fast-break dunk
to tie the score, 53-53.
The Spartans
then misfired their next shot and the ball was rebounded by Shehan
who fed it to Butler. Butler passed it to Jones who buried the jumpshot
from the right corner, giving the Mountaineers the 55-53 edge.
Then, with the
score tied at 57 and only 1:20 left to play, David Schuck poked
the ball away from forward Donald Payne and the Spartans scored
on Eldridge's fadeaway jumpshot giving the Spartans the two-point
advantage.
On the Mountaineers
ensuing possession, Butler was fouled, but was only able to hit
one out of two free throws making the score 59-58 with 37 seconds
remaining.
After two free
throws by Schuck, Appalachian State found itself down three with
under thirty seconds to go.
Noah Brown missed
what would have been the tying three-pointer but the ball was rebounded
by Payne, who kicked the ball back outside.
Brown found
himself again with the ball at the top of the key but this time
passed it to Payne who couldn't connect on the layup.
Shehan's attempt
with the follow-up was no good but drew contact. No foul was called
however.
Schuck was fouled
immediately on the inbounds pass but the 6-foot-8 junior calmly
hit both free throw attempts, ending any hope of a Mountaineer victory.
It took the
whittling down of another large Mountaineer lead, however, to generate
such an exciting finish.
With the score
at 12-11 in favor of Appalachian State seven minutes into the first
half, the Mountaineers went on an 11-0 run over the next four and
a half minutes.
Then Eldridge
struck as he would do throughout the game, nailing a three-pointer
to make it 23-14 and after a layup by Josh Shehan, added another
three-point basket with 6:15 to play in the first cutting the deficit
to eight.
Still, the Mountaineers
rebuilt the lead and by the end of the first half, had taken a 34-22
advantage.
After the game,
Appalachian State head coach Houston Fancher pointed out that it
was the Mountaineers' problems at the start of the second half that
cost them the most, not their play at the end.
"The plain
and simple fact is that we lost the lead at the beginning of the
second half and not at the beginning of the ball game É any coach
would by concerned about losing a lead but at the same time I'm
not gonna get away from the overriding factor that these kids fought
hard tonight." Said Fancher.
"They shot
way too many layups on us tonight," said Fancher. "Number
one we got beat off the dribble and then we didn't do a good job
of rotating around to help off the dribble."
"We let
a 12-point lead get down to one and we can't do that against a good
team like Greensboro." Said Shehan.
After the game,
Shehan analyzed the ill-fated ending.
"They were
doing the same things throughout the game and nothing really changed.
Some of their shots went in, some of ours didn't. That's the way
it goes sometimes."
The Mountaineers
conclude their regular season this Saturday on the road against
VMI. The matchup will be the last game Appalachian State plays before
the SoCon Tournament kicks off Thursday on the first of March.
Mountaineer
baseball team looks to rebound from sub-par 2000 campaign
Andy Morris
Sports Beat
Appalachian
State University baseball coach Troy Heustess does not take much
credit in preseason polls.
"I'm not
much of a poll watcher," he said. "People base those polls
on last year's performances."
That is probably
best, considering that in the Southern Conference preseason baseball
polls, the Mountaineers were picked to finish in ninth place according
to the Sports Information Directors' Poll and in tenth place in
the Coaches' Poll.
Senior Mike
Lee, a native of Mebane, believes those polls are faulty. "Somebody
didn't do their homework," he said. "They just looked
at what we did last year and didn't care to see what we had returning."
But the Mountaineers
do not plan to let a preseason prediction keep them down.
Luke Little,
a senior from Locust, plans to use the prediction as an advantage
. "It gives
us a striving point to do better," he said. "We just have
to go out, play hard every game and prove people wrong."
Marko Little,
a sophomore, likes the preseason placement.
"I like
being the underdog and not having people expect us to win,"
he said. "When we do win, it will be that much better of a
feeling."
The Mountaineers
will be looking to do a lot more winning after a 14-38 overall record
and a 10-20 record in the Southern Conference. Appalachian lost
two seniors last season but returns six this year.
Luke Little
feels confident about the team's chances of winning this year.
"I think
we'll be a lot better than last year," he said. "We have
some good newcomers that came in and can help us a lot too."
Heustess, in
his second year as head coach of the Mountaineers, remains upbeat
about this year's team.
"Right
now, we can physically do everything on the field," he said.
"Everybody is working hard and we have six seniors showing
strong leadership."
Lee and Luke
Little both agree that the Mountaineers' strong point is at the
plate.
"We have
guys that are sitting on the bench that can hit the ball well,"
said Lee. "We're definitely a hitting team."
Heustess is
not focusing on basic skills for the Mountaineers right now but
for the team to maintain an upbeat attitude throughout the season.
"Every
time we take the field, we're looking for improvement, for the kids
to play hard and put a total effort into the game," he said.
Despite the
positive attitude of the team, the Mountaineers still require improvement
in the mental part of their game.
"A lot
of times we'd get ahead and end up losing the game in the last couple
of innings or we would get down early and never try to comeback,"
said Graham Thompson, a sophomore from Dunn. "We need to start
off good and end good."
Heustess agrees
that consistency is a key factor of the game that Appalachian needs
to improve upon.
"We need
to improve on consistency and confidence," he said. "We
need to have more and more days when we put everything together
on the field."
The Mountaineers
open the Southern Conference season against Georgia Southern University
March 2 on the road. Their first home game is March 17 with a doubleheader
against Furman University at noon.
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