Men's Basketball Sun Belt Conference

Defense Helps Mountaineers Dispatch Arkansas State

PENSACOLA, Fla. - The Sun Belt Conference’s second-best men’s basketball scoring defense entering postseason play belonged to the Appalachian State University Mountaineers. On Friday night, Appalachian State (14-11) forced the Little Rock Trojans (11-15) into 14 turnovers and held them to only 4-14 shooting from beyond the arc, as the Mountaineers grabbed a 67-60 win at Hartsell Arena to advance in the Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball Championships.

Little Rock started quickly, scoring nine of the game’s first 12 points, but App State rattled off a quick 8-0 run to grab its first lead of the game with 14:47 left in the first half. There were four ties and four lead changes in the first half, and App State boasted the largest lead of the half - a seven point cushion thanks to a 7-1 run for the Mountaineers that was capped with a dunk from Adrian Delph with 5:59 to play in the period.

Points were hard to come by in the final six minutes of the stanza, as the Trojans held App State off the board after that dunk, but they only managed six points of their own, and neither team scored in the final 2:24. At the break, App State held a slim 30-29 lead.

App State got a triple from Michael Almonacy 40 seconds into the final 20 minutes. The theme of the second half becamse App State answering the Trojans' baskets to keep the lead. Little Rock closed the gap to a single point three times in the first 10 minutes of the second half, but in in the final instance, the Mountaineers used back-to-back 3-pointers from Delph and Justin Forrestto to expand its lead, 49-42, with 9:10 remaining. After a made free throw from Little Rock’s Ben Coupet, Jr., Forrest again connected from long range to put the Mountaineers up 51-43, and the margin was never again within a single possession.

Little Rock closed the gap to five on a jumper from Nikola Maric with 3:19 left in the game, but the Mountaineers took the ball to the rim for their next two scores to put the game away, and App State held on in the closing moments for the 67-60 win.

Forrest led all scorers with 24 points in the game on 8-of-18 shooting. Delph (14), Almonacy (13), and Donovan Gregory (11) also reached double-figures for App State in the game. Coupet, Jr. led the Trojans with 19 in the game, Ruot Monyyong added 17, and Marko Lukic chipped in 13 for the Trojans as well. 

App State shut down Little Rock on the perimeter, allowing 4-of-14 shooting (28.6%) in the game. Only Coupet, Jr. (3-for-8) made more than one from long distance for Little Rock in the game.

App State was 12-for-30 from deep, and both Forrest (5-for-9) and Delph (4-for-13) both connected often in the game.  

The win advanced the Mountaineers to the Sun Belt Championships quarterfinals Saturday against the top-seed from the SBC West Division, the Texas State Bobcats (18-6). Tip off is 8 p.m. in the Pensacola Bay Center.