NEW ORLEANS - Ninth-seeded Appalachian State closed out Tuesday's first round game on a 21-6 run to defeat eighth-seeded Arkansas State, 79-68, at Lakefront Arena.

With the win the Mountaineers will now move on to face top-seeded Little Rock in Thursday's quarterfinal round at 11:30 a.m. CT. A-State's season comes to an end as the Red Wolves finish 15-15 on the year.

App State improved to 8-22.

Bayley Plummer led the way for the Mountaineers as the foreward pulled down 19 rebounds, eight offensive, and totaled 18 points on the day. LaPresha Stanley led all scorers with a game-high 27 on 8-of-17 shooting. Stanley was 10-for-11 from the charity stripe.

Payton Tennison led the Red Wolves in scoring with 16.

The Mountaineers led by nine at halftime but a furious rally by the Red Wolves to start the third quarter pulled A-State ahead after a 16-4 run to go up 52-46 with 1:28 to go in the third. A-State got steals on three straight defensive stands to push the lead to its largest point at 55-48 with 1:05 remaining before the Mountaineers would score on five straight possessions of their own to take a one-point lead heading into the fourth.

Arkansas State Notes

• Sophomore Payton Tennison led the Red Wolves with 16 points, shooting 4-9 from behind the three-point line in her 28 minutes.
• Freshman Morgan Wallace grabbed a team high six rebounds, five coming from the defensive end.
• The Red Wolves as a whole only shot seven free throws making three.
• Arkansas moved the ball well, creating six more assists then App State

Appalachian State Notes

• Sophomore Bayley Plummer shot 7-15, coming out with 18 points and grabbing 19 rebounds while blocking five shots. She also played all 40 minutes.
• Freshman LaPresha Stanley made 10-11 free throws to score a career high 27 points. She also was able to grab six rebounds, dish out two assists and notch two steals in her 33 minutes.
• The Mountaineers made use of their 26 free throws to make 21 from the charity stripe.
• App State out rebounded Arkansas State by 18 while also blocking 4 more shots.
• Plummer recorded her 13th double-double while matching her personal high 18 points.

Quotes

Appalachian State Head Coach Angel Elderkin
Opening Statement:
“First of all, I just want to congratulate Arkansas State on the season, and I thought that was a really great basketball team for the eighth and ninth seed of this league, and I think that just shows how competitive this tournament is going to be.  I thought the difference for us, and something that we haven’t been able to do all season, was that in the fourth quarter we did not turn the ball over.  One of the things that we’ve done in close games and in the fourth quarter is we’ve turned it over, and that’s hurt us, and I thought our group really stayed composed, and they were able to finish.  I’m a rebounding coach, and I stopped talking about it about a week and a half ago, haven’t mentioned it to them, and to see us with fifty rebounds today just puts a smile on my face.”

On whether the 50 rebounds was a deciding factor

“I don’t think it was the deciding factor, but I thought Bailey Plumber set the tone early for our club, in terms of just cleaning up the boards on the defensive side and just giving Arkansas State one shot early, and then when you look at second chance points, and we had seventeen to their six, that’s a big stat, and I think that really helped us.”

Arkansas Head Coach Brian Boyer
Opening Statement:
“I give a lot of credit to Appalachian State.  During the course of the year we split with them twice.  They have done a really good job all year long of being really competitive in games and I think down to the last couple weeks in our place they looked like a team that had really worn-down over the course of the season because of their depth.  One thing you fear in a tournament is that you find that next level of energy, which they obviously showed today.  The biggest difference in this game was obviously the offensive rebounding that we gave up.  We gave up twenty offensive rebounds.  That is a huge number.  Then the other one is the free throw of comparison.  They go 21-26 as oppose to our 3-7.  That was our own doing.  We didn’t finish plays a lot and they turned into fouls.  We didn’t rebound well enough and that turns into fouls.  And then on our end we could never aggressively. Plumber just does such a good job of fouling she is so disciplined with how big she is.  We weren’t able to score inside and she was able to do that without fouling.  Those are the two biggest areas in the difference in this game.”

After the 19-4 run, App responded pretty quickly.  What was the difference?

“I think part of what happened was that for a team that has been really deep all year long, we weren’t today.  Part of that is on me and my trust.  We had a good run with that group on the floor and we just tried to stick with them, and may have gone too long because I think we really wore down and couldn’t finish plays.”

On the effects of not having Akasha Westbrook.

“A huge loss.  She’s our leading scorer and where you find the difference more than anything is on the defensive end.  She led the Sun Belt in steals and she’s also a very good rebounder.  So more on that end of the court than anything.  When you look at App State, in conference play they are averaging 55-56 points a game, and we just gave up 79.  So the defensive end is clearly where this game got out of hand.  The defense and the free throws, and the rebounding – that’s an area where Westbrook has excelled and that would have just been one more player that could have helped us.”

Once App State knew Westbrook was out, they planned to run the 2-3 zone.  What were you trying to change to counter that as the game went on?

“I think more so than the 2-3 zone, where that was so effective at times, when we beat them at our place two weeks ago, one of the things we were trying to constantly do was to get Plummer to the perimeter.  When they go 2-3 zone, you can’t get her to the perimeter.  We couldn’t finish inside and we couldn’t get her away from the basket.  I thought that really hurt us inside because those were points we couldn’t get, but it also took a little bit out of us, kind of frustrated us a little bit.”

You guys have had a lot of success in the first round, what is this game in context of what you guys built?

“This tournament hurts when you lose.  I don’t care if it’s first round, second round, whatever.  When you finally lose it comes to an end.  We’ve had a good run, and leading up to last year, when the tournament would end, we’d still have basketball ahead of us.  This is tough because it’s final.  There is no regroup or what next – it’s final.  We go home and start working on post-season.”

Arkansas State So., G, Payton Tennison
On the scoring outburst on your part:
“After the first half I didn’t score and during half time I was just thinking that we have to do whatever it takes to get this win.  I owe that to my teammates, especially the seniors and I owe it to my coaches to go out there and give it all I got.  That is what I was trying to do; just try to get a win for them.”

On the plan for the threes:
“They recruited me here to be not just a shooter, but be more than that obviously.  I came here to shoot the ball.  They were giving me good passes, good open looks.  Giving me the ball when I needed it.  Fortunately today I was able to knock them down.”

On Westbrook being out:
“She was a big scorer for us.  We knew someone had to step up and fill that role and get those points that she usually gets us.”