Playing for first place
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

It didn’t take long for Chattanooga to get a chance at revenge with Appalachian State.

The Mocs, still smarting from a rough two-game road trip, get a second shot at the Mountaineers Saturday at McKenzie Arena. Tip-off is at 3 p.m. Appalachian State, after playing three straight home games, returned to the road Thursday at Furman, but results were not available by press time. However, should the Mountaineers beat Furman, they will go into Chattanooga looking to take first place in the Southern Conference’s North Division away from the Mocs.

The Mountaineers went into their game at Furman with a six-game winning streak. They also won four of their last five road games before returning to the Holmes Center, where they beat UNC Greensboro, Chattanooga and Georgia Southern — who all have winning records — in a row.

Mountaineers coach Houston Fancher feels that the Mountaineers have been playing with a lot of confidence that he would like to see taken into this weekend’s games.

“From a confidence standpoint, I think that mentally the kids are feeling that they can go in and win games,” Fancher said.

“The kid are feeling better about their ability to guard and their ability to score points,” Fancher added
It wasn’t so long ago, Jan. 17 to be exact, that the Mountaineers were two-and-a-half games behind the Mocs, who were 7-0 in the SoCon at the time. But Appalachian State rolled to an impressive 92-83 victory at the Holmes Center, pulling them to within a game of the Mocs in the loss column.

Chattanooga ran into a Davidson buzz saw the following Saturday, losing 85-58. It left the Mocs tied with the Mountaineers, a winner over Georgia Southern that same day, in the loss column and just one game behind in the win column.

Chattanooga (12-7, 7-2) has not played since. The Mocs have had a week to correct any mistakes made in the losses to Appalachian State and Davidson.

Shooting the ball wasn’t the Mocs’ problem against Appalachian State. The Mocs made 48.5 percent of their shots, but just 8-of-19 from the foul line. Nicchaeus Doaks led the Mocs in scoring with 22 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in the game.

Appalachian State got 28 points and eight assist from point guard Donald Sims, who was eventually named the SoCon’s player of the week Monday. Sims hit 6-of-11 3-point tries and collected seven rebounds in just 28 minutes.

Appalachian State also got 18 points from 6-foot-9 center Donte Minter and 13 from guard Kellen Brand against the Mocs. None of them played more than 29 minutes.

Defensively, Jeremy Clayton blocked eight shots and had three steals to go with his eight points and four boards against Chattanooga.

“The great thing for us is balance,” Fancher said. “We’ve had a number of different scorers. Kellen Brand and Donald Sims and Donte have all played well. Jeremy is starting to make his presence more known and Jeremi Booth has given us good things.”

The Mountaineers return home Monday to host Elon, a team that beat the Mountaineers at the Holmes Center last year.