Sunday, November 12, 2017
Appalachian State 95, Bridgewater 57
BOONE, N.C. -- Junior Ronshad Shabazz (Raleigh, N.C./Huntington Prep) scored 25 points and junior Tyrell Johnson (Atlanta, Ga./Stephenson) added 20 to lead Appalachian State men's basketball past Bridgewater 95-57 in a non-bracket game of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off at Myrtle Beach on Sunday inside the Holmes Center.
The Mountaineers stand at 2-0 on the season, marking the first time they opened the season 2-0 since 2010-11.
Shabazz tallied his second straight 20-point performance, after scoring 21 in Saturday's win over Toccoa Falls. He finished 7-of-11 (63.6 percent) from the field, while dishing out four assists and recording a career-high tying three steals.
Johnson knocked down 8-of-9 (88.9 percent) of his free throws and also pulled down seven rebounds in the win.
Off the bench, freshman O'Showen Williams (Macon, Ga./Stratford Academy) tallied a career-high 17 points to go along with four rebounds.
The Mountaineers scored the first seven points of the game to jump out to an early 7-0 lead. App State used an 8-0 run minutes later to expand its lead to 15-6 with just under 14 minutes in the opening half.
A 10-0 run by Appalachian pushed its lead to 39-16 with just over three minutes left in the first half. App State took a 41-21 advantage into the break.
In the second half, the Mountaineers would continue to expand their lead and used a 9-0 spurt over a 2:52 span to build an 81-42 lead with 5:36 remaining and put the game away.
The Black and Gold defense was tough for the second straight game, limiting the Eagles (0-1) to 31.1 percent (19-of-61) shooting and forcing 25 turnovers.
Appalachian also held a 54-36 edge in the rebounding battle.
The Mountaineers will be back at it on Thursday, as they open the bracket portion of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off at Myrtle Beach. Appalachian take on Iowa State at 5:30 p.m. on ESPNU.
Troy 81, Arkansas-Pine Bluff 57
HONOLULU, Hawai'i – It was a historic day for Troy men’s basketball as Wesley Person broke the all-time record for made 3-pointers as he led Troy to an 81-57 victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
With 11:34 left in the game, Person launched a shot that went off the front of the rim, went up in the air and dropped back in. The fortuitous bounce gave him 270 for his career breaking the record held by Rhodney Donaldson for nearly 20 years.
Person’s three was one of four he had on the afternoon en route to a team-high 17 points. He paced a Troy offense that had five players in double-digits on the afternoon on 50.9 percent shooting (29-57) from the field.
The Trojans led for all but 20 seconds as the Golden Lions made just 18 field goals (18-60) and seven 3-pointers (7-26). It was a dominating game on the stat sheet as Troy had the advantage in virtually all categories highlighted by a 47-29 advantage in rebounds.
A B.J. Miller tip back at the first half buzzer propelled Troy to a 50-point explosion in the closing frame. It marked the first time the Trojans put up 50 in a second half since scoring 58 at UL Lafayette on Feb. 11 of last season.
Air Force 65, Texas State 57
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Texas State men’s basketball team fell in the 2017-18 season opener to Air Force 65-57 at Clune Arena in the first game of the Men Against Breast Cancer Showcase.
The Bobcats are now 0-1 for the first time since the 2013-14 campaign while the Falcons are 1-0.
“We did not play with the energy or crispness that we needed to play with. We have to correct this problem of too many turnovers. In the two exhibition games we had close to 20 in each and tonight we had 20, which was probably the difference in the game,” said head coach Danny Kaspar. “I thought this was a game we could have won but we let it get away from us at the end of the first half. We have to learn from this experience and move forward.
Scoring the first points of the season and the game was Immanuel King when he backed down an AF defender for a layup. The Falcons responded with a 9-0 run that was snapped on a three-pointer from the right wing by Nijal Pearson. The sophomore followed with another trey the next time down the court for a quick six points for the Bobcats.
Pearson converted an old-fashion three-point play with 4:12 left in the first half to give TXST its first lead since the opening basket of the game.
A short jumper from Nedeljko Prijovic after driving the baseline at the 2:29 mark was the last time the Bobcats would score in the half. AF ended the half on a 12-2 to take a 33-24 advantage into intermission.
On the opening possession of the second half, the Falcons nearly got a steal but the loose ball was retrieved by Prijovic. Marlin Davis then drove the baseline and found Tyler Blount wide open for a three-pointer from the left corner to cut the deficit to 33-27.
That would be as close as the Bobcats would get as the Falcons maintained a double-digit lead nearly the rest of the way.
Air Force’s largest lead of the game was 65-48 with 3:40 left on the clock. TXST ended the game by scoring the final nine points that began when Shelby Adams converted a 3-point play after making a tough layup. Scoring the final point of the contest was Quentin Scott when he hit his second of two free throw attempts.
Pearson shared the for the game lead with 13 points and six rebounds. King added nine points as he made his lone field goal attempt and went 7-for-8 at the free throw line. The senior big man also blocked two shots to give him 40 in his career.
Davis, Pearson and Terry all finished with a team-high two assists. Coming away with a steal was Reggie Miller, Alex Peacock, Adams and Terry.
Next up for TXST is the home opener on Wednesday against I-35 rival UTSA at 7 p.m. The game will air in on KCWX (San Antonio).
SMU 83, ULM 65
DALLAS – SMU put together a 15-2 run early in the second half to pull away from ULM for an 83-65 victory Sunday, as the Mustangs extended their winning streak in Moody Coliseum to 24 consecutive games – the NCAA's third-longest active streak. ULM led by as many as six points in the first half and trailed by just four at halftime, 35-31.
There were four ties and seven lead changes in the first half. Michael Ertel's three-pointer sparked a 5-0 ULM run, as the Warhawks built a 14-10 lead five-and-a-half minutes into the game. ULM used another 5-1 spurt midway through the first half to take a 19-13 lead on a jumper by Sam McDaniel. SMU responded with a 9-0 run and moved out to a 22-19 lead on Ben Emelogu's three-pointer. Ertel's third trey of the first half gave the Warhawks a 27-26 lead with 4:02 left. The Mustangs answered with five-straight points to gain a 31-27 advantage, but ULM pulled even again at 31-all on McDaniel's jumper with 1:03 remaining. SMU made four-straight free throws in the final minute to take a 35-31 lead into the locker room.
SMU led for 8:33 in the opening 20 minutes, while the Warhawks held the upper hand for 8:03. ULM forced the Mustangs into 11 first-half turnovers and converted those miscues into 14 points. The Warhawks also outrebounded SMU, 21-16, in the opening half.
Trailing by six points early in the second half, ULM used a 9-4 run to cut the deficit to one at 43-42 on Roderick Taylor's jumper from the right side of the lane. Ethan Chargois (eight points) and Shake Milton (five points) combined for 13 points during SMU's decisive 15-2 run midway through the second half. A jumper by Chargois gave the Mustangs a 14-point lead at 58-44 with 9:58 remaining. The Warhawks went scoreless for 3:23 during that stretch. A three-pointer from William Douglas gave SMU its largest lead at 83-62 with 31 seconds left.
Milton, the Preseason American Athletic Conference Player of the Year, scored a game-high 24 points, while Chargois netted 18 of his 23 points in the second half. SMU (2-0) shot 59 percent (17-of-29) from the field in the second half, connecting on 7-of-12 three-point field-goal attempts (58 percent). The Mustangs outrebounded ULM, 36-33, and outscored the Warhawks, 28-14, in the paint.
"That's a very good team," ULM head coach Keith Richard said. "SMU won 30 games last year and they've got three key players back. Milton is an NBA prospect. He's a really good player, who is the focal point of their offense. When SMU needs a basket, his teammates get him the ball and something good usually happens.
"We've had problems defensively in the second half of our two preseason scrimmages and these first two games, so it's been a recurring theme. That's bothersome and something that needs to be addressed.
"We knew there were going to be some normal growing pains early in the season, but there are some positives to take away from this road trip," Richard continued. "I really like our fight; the guys really competed for a great portion of both these games at TCU and SMU. We shot the ball well from the perimeter, but we need to fix some things.
"We played two teams in TCU and SMU that are taller than the teams we'll face in our league. I'm really glad we did this short two-game road trip because it mirrors our conference travel schedule, so our guys will draw from this experience."
For the second-straight game, four ULM players scored in double figures, including McDaniel and Marvin Jean-Pierre, who tossed in 14 points each. Ertel, who went scoreless in his collegiate debut Friday at TCU, hit 4-of-7 three-pointers and finished with 12 points, while Jordon Harris added 11 points. Jean-Pierre also collected a team-high eight rebounds.
"We shot the ball well from the three-point line again at 44 percent (11-of-25)," Richard said. "Michael (Ertel), Jordon (Harris) and Sam (McDaniel) all knocked down three-point shots. We've been a good perimeter shooting team, but we have to become more than a three-point shooting team.
"We haven't scored well from inside in these first two games. Basketball is still a game where the team with the most layups normally wins. We can't be just a three-point shooting team. We have to establish something in the post, find ways to score off the dribble and in transition."
ULM (0-2) opens a four-game homestand in Fant-Ewing Coliseum against Southeastern Louisiana on Thursday, Nov. 21, with tipoff set for 7 p.m.
"A four-game homestand, especially in November, is something to be excited about," Richard said. "We need to play at home."