Mountaineers take on Hogs
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

Arkansas is big and they’ve been on a roll. They’re also waiting for Appalachian State for a Saturday showdown in Little Rock, Ark.

Appalachian State (4-5) also has some size, but the Mountaineers have struggled lately. They played their first game in 16 days — an 82-77 win over NAIA UVa.-Wise — at the Holmes Center last Monday.

They face an Arkansas team (9-2) that starts a front line of center Steven Hill (7-feet-0) and Charles Thomas (6-8). Darian Townes (6-10) comes off the bench.

In the backcourt, guard Patrick Beverly leads the team in scoring at 12.6 points per game. Townes is second at 12.1 points and guard Sonny Weems is third at 10.7 points per game.

“Patrick Beverly is an All-SEC player for them as a sophomore,” Mountaineers coach Houston Fancher said. “They’ve got Sonny Weems, who was an all-American junior college player and Gary Ervin at the point and he’s a transfer from Mississippi State. Stephan Welch comes off the bench for them and he’s a high school all-American. They were picked to win the SEC West (Division) this year, so we know it’s going to be a major, major challenge for us.”

The Moun-taineers have some size of their own. Freshman center Isaac Butts stands 6-9 and weighs in around 300 pounds. Donte Minter and Davis Bowne both are 6-9, as is Doug McLaughlin-Williams.

Fancher was happy with how Butts played Monday. He scored 10 points, helped by 4-of-7 shooting from the field.

“Ike’s playing with some confidence,” Fancher said. “He knows he’s playing behind a guy (Minter) who is playing a lot of minutes in front of him, but he came right into the game and gave us some quick buckets right away and I think he showed some glimpses of what’s to come for us.”

Appalachian State has struggled against Division I opponents lately, losing its last three. However, those games were played late in November and early in December. Final exams kept the Mountaineers from playing for 16 days, until their win over a UVa.-Wise team that refused to go away.

Appalachian State got 14 rebounds and nine points from Jeremy Clayton Monday night. Guard Kellen Brand scored 17 points to lead the Mountaineers.

Fancher knows that a similar effort won’t do against the Razorbacks. However, he feels that the Mountaineers will raise their level of play Saturday afternoon.

“It’s the only game they play in Little Rock all season long, so there will be a sellout of about 17,000,” Fancher said. “They’ll be yelling for pigs and all types of stuff in there this weekend, so we’re going to have to come and be able to handle pressure, because they’ll be coming after us. They’re going to try to create tempo in there and we’re going to have to raise our level of play.”

Fancher was optimistic that the Mountaineers could keep up with the Razorbacks.

“I think we will,” he said. “I think our kids will be excited about getting there and playing. I don’t think they’ll turn and run from them. I think they’ll compete and fight and try to stay as close as we can with them and see what we can do down the stretch.”