Rumble at Holmes
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

Appalachian State could not have found a better time to be playing its best basketball.

The Mountaineers, 9-6 overall 4-2 in the Southern Conference, host Chattanooga in a key North Division showdown Thursday at the Holmes Center.

It’s a chance for the Mountaineers to pull closer to the first-place Mocs, who are 12-5 overall and 7-0 in league play. Naturally, the game is big for the Mountaineers, who are looking to inch back into the North race. A win over Chattanooga coupled with another win over Georgia Southern will give the Mountaineers a three-game sweep during their homestand, which began with a 91-68 pasting of UNC Greensboro last Saturday.

“I know they’re talented, I know they’re undefeated and that they’ve got a transfer from South Carolina named Stephen McDowell, who is a very good player. They rebound the dickens out of the ball. It will be a major challenge for us because they are playing better than anybody in our league right now, including Davidson. We’re really going to have to buck up to play them.”

It’s also a big weekend for Chattanooga. After playing Appalachian State, the Mocs play at Davidson for a matchup of the two division leaders. Two Appalachian State wins coupled with two Chattanooga losses would put the Mountaineers within a half-game out of first place of the North Division.

But that is still in the future. Appalachian State must concentrate on the present, a Chattanooga team that averages 79.1 points per game and has won seven out of its last eight games. Marcus Watts scored 18 points in the Mocs’ latest win, an 85-55 pasting of Western Carolina last Saturday.

But Watts does not lead the Mocs in scoring. That honor belongs to McDowell, who scores 16.2 points per game. Nicchaeus Doakes adds 12.2 points, followed by Watts, who averages 8.6 per game.

Fancher was grateful to have a few days to prepare for Chattanooga. The Mountaineers had one day to get ready for Greensboro.

“We beat a good basketball team (Saturday),” Fancher said. “To have one day to prepare for Greensboro after coming off the road, like they did, speaks a lot for our team. When you’ve got one day to prepare, you can put a few things in, but when there is one day to prepare, you’re lining up two teams to play against each other and the better team that day is going to win.”

Appalachian State currently is playing its best basketball of the season. The recent improvement in the backcourt is a big reason.

Point guards Donald Sims (14 points) and Ryann Abraham (15 points), combined to score 29 points, dish out nine assists and stole the ball away twice in the Mountaineers’ win over UNC Greensboro. One game earlier at Wofford, Sims was just 2-of-9 from the field, but combined with Davis Bowne to steal the ball away from the Terriers with 8.4 seconds left in the game, and then hit two foul shots to seal a 52-49 victory.

Kellen Brand scored 12 points in that game and had nine against UNCG.

Fancher said the Mountaineers have been practicing in the morning so the players could get back to their school work.

“We’ve moved to morning practices here to get them up and get them going,” Fancher said. “I think we could practice at three in the morning and they’d jump up and do it right now because the excitement level inside themselves.”