Mountaineers push

pass The Citadel
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Citadel is undergoing a massive youth movement with its men’s basketball team.

The Bulldogs have 13 freshmen on their roster, including the five who started against Appalachian State at McAllister Field House Saturday afternoon. Ten of them are on scholarship. And though the Bulldogs showed some potential to be a decent team in the future, the Mountaineers showed to be the team of the present in their 63-50 victory in front of 915 fans, none who were cadets, who were on winter break.

The Mountaineers (7-6, 2-2 SoCon), after starting their Southern Conference season 0-2, are currently 2-0 on their South Carolina tour. Having beaten College of Charleston 70-66 Thursday night, they face Wofford in Spartanburg, S.C. Thursday night. The following Saturday, they'll host UNC Greensboro, their first game against a North Division team.

Mountaineers coach Houston Fancher said Appalachian State’s run last year to the North Division title started with a sweep of College of Charleston and The Citadel in Charleston. He's like to see the trend continued.

“We want to win all of them,” he said. “We’ve gotten to the point, and last year our season sort of pivoted on this trip to Charleston, so I don't want to necessarily make a tradition out of it, but hopefully we'll use this as a springboard to more wins and be able to string a few together and get ourselves back involved in the race for that bye.”

The Mountaineers have a chance to get back into the North Division race next week. After hosting Greensboro on Saturday, they’ll host Chattanooga and Georgia Southern, before heading back to South Carolina for a game at Furman.

The importance of getting a sweep in Charleston was not lost on the Mountaineers.

“That one was the first one, so we got some motivation there,” point guard Ryann Abraham said of the win over College of Charleston. “When we came here to day, we played hard and they played great too, but we did our jobs and got a win.”

Depth played a part in their win Saturday. Appalachian used 11 players Saturday, 10 who played more than 10 minutes. They got 13 points from Abraham and 11 from Donte Minter, but The Citadel struggled offensively. The Bulldogs hit 29.3 percent of their shots from the field, though Tyrell McDowell scored 15 points and Zach Urbanus added 12.

Of the 11 Mountaineers, 10 had at least two points. Minter also pulled down 13 rebounds.

“He’s chasing down boards more,” Fancher said. “He’s getting rebounds out of his area and he’s going up with his long, left hand and snatching things down and making some big rebounding plays for us.”

Appalachian State actually got off to a slow start as The Citadel built a 10-4 lead in the early going. But Appalachian State rallied and claimed a 36-28 halftime lead. The Mountaineers opened a 20-point lead — 57-37 — when Doug McLaughlin-Williams hit a 3-pointer with 8:16 left in the game. The Citadel eventually rallied and closed to within 60-50 on a 3-pointer by Urbanus with 1:32 left, but the Mountaineers' lead was never in any serious jeopardy.

The Mountaineers took control of the game in the first half when, trailing 24-19, went on a 17-4 run in the final 6:16 of the half. Donald Sims capped the run with a 3-pointer with five seconds left to give the Mountaineers a 36-28 halftime lead.

Sims, who finished with seven points, saw his streak of hitting 28 straight foul shots come to an end Saturday. He hit 1-of-2 against the Bulldogs.

“I didn't even think about it,” Sims said. “We just want to make our free throws. We want to establish our identity for being a good free-throw shooting team. Fortunately I made 28 in a row and it was broken tonight, but I didn’t even think about it.”

The Citadel was missing 6-foot-7 senior center Demetrius Nelson, who was out with an injury. The Bulldogs were also missing redshirt freshman Walter Howard, a 6-7 forward who was also out with an injury.

Appalachian State 63, The Citadel 50
Appalachian State (7-6, 2-2)
Clayton 3-5 0-1 6, Minter 4-7 3-5 11, Sims 2-8 1-2 7, Bermudez 2-7 1-2 7, Brand 2-3 0-0 4, Abraham 4-8 4-4 13, Booth 2-9 0-0 6, Highsmith 0-0 0-0 0, Butts 1-1 0-0 2, Bowne 2-3 0-2 4, McLaughlin-Williams 1-3 0-0 3. Totals 23-52 9-16 63.
The Citadel (5-8, 0-4)
McDowell 5-9 3-5 15, Dahn 1-8 0-0 2, Clark 2-5 2-2 7, Urbanus 4-12 0-0 12, Wells 4-14 0-0 9, Brick 0-3 0-0 0, Pandak 1-4 0-0 3, Eykyn 0-2 2-2 2. Totals 17-58 7-11 50.
Halftime score-Appalachian State 36, The Citadel 28. 3-point goals-ASU 8-25 (Bermudez 2-4, Sims 2-7, Booth 2-8, McLaughlin-Williams 1-3, Abraham 1-3), The CItadel 9-30 (Urbanus 4-8, McDowell 2-4, Pandak 1-2, Clark 1-3, Wells 1-4, Brick 0-2, Dahn 0-4). Rebounds-ASU 43 (Minter 13), Citadel 34 (McDowell 8). Assists-ASU 14 (Abraham 4), Citadel 10 (Urbanus, Brick 3). Turnovers-ASU 15, Citadel 13. Total fouls-ASU 17, Citadel 13. Fouled out-None. Technical fouls-None.