Mixon leads

ASU to win
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

Appalachian State’s women’s basketball team needed something positive to happen after suffering such a bad loss to Furman last Saturday.

The Mountaineers got it Monday with a 92-79 win over Wofford at the Holmes Center. The 92 points are a season high for Appalachian State (5-15, 2-7 SoCon), which had lost two straight after showing signs of life by winning two in a row.

It helped to have five players score in double figures. Brittany Mixon, Appalachian State’s 6-foot-3 center, scored 18 points and pulled down 16 rebounds, seven on the offensive end.

“The win was impeccable,” Mixon said. “We played as a team and it was a lot of hard work and heart out there. You saw each and every person go for every rebound. There was no laxadaisical out there at all.

Everybody played together and it was really nice to see that team effort.”

GiGi Thomas added 17 points, while Francis Hernandez came off the bench to score 16 points. Whitney Tossie added 14 and Sam Ramirez scored 10 for the Mountaineers.

Yet it was defense that Appalachian State coach Adrienne Shuler credited for the win. Wofford (9-11, 2-7) turned the ball over 21 times and shot 35.5 percent from the field. The Terriers stayed close by hitting 30-of-37 foul shots, but also were outrebounded 48-41 and gave up 24 points of their turnovers.

“They were getting past us and shooting layups and we took that away in the second half and made them start taking jumpshots, and I thought that was the difference in the ballgame,” Shuler said. “Defensively we did a much better job of containing dribble penetration in the second half.

Appalachian State gave the ball up just 14 times, well below their season average of 22 per game.

“We had 14 Saturday against Furman,” Shuler said. “We’ve been taking care of the ball, but defensively we didn’t create and we feed off our defense. Today, we had 13 steals and that’s about what we’re averaging. Defense fuels our offense.”

Appalachian State did its best to contain Wofford’s Kelsi Koenig, who scored 18 points, pulled down 10 rebounds and hit 12-of-15 from the foul line. Liz Miller, helped by hitting 8-of-11 free throws, scored 18 points for the Terriers.

The Mountaineers trailed most of the first half until they closed out the first half with a 8-2 run to claim a 39-36 halftime lead. It was 47-47 with 15:32 left in the second half when Appalachian State went on a 17-2 burst, capped by two Ramirez 3-pointers, and claimed a 64-49 lead with 11:59 left in the game.

Trailing 68-51, Wofford went on a 7-0 burst capped by a Kristen Bradley 3-point bucket, but the Mountaineers answered with four points of their own and took a 72-58 lead that was never in jeopardy.

“We got in the passing lanes and we got some turnovers and did a good job on the top of the defense,” Shuler said.

Appalachian State 92, Wofford 79
Wofford (9-11, 2-7)
Koenig 3-6 12-15 18, Varno 3-7 2-3 8, Miller 5-13 8-11 18, Gramblin 1-5 6-6 8, Depko 1-6 0-0 2, Bradley 4-7 0-0 12, Helms 0-1 0-0 0, Kroker 1-6 0-0 3, Williams 4-11 2-2 10. Totals 22-62 30-37 79.
Appalachian State (5-15 2-7)
Cunningham 2-4 0-0 4, Mixon 6-16 6-8 18, Thomas 8-11 0-0 18, Spencer 2-3 1-2 5, Tossie 6-12 2-2 14, Ramierez 3-11 2-2 10, Hernandez 5-12 3-4 16, Randolph 0-6 8-10 8. Totals 32-75 22-28 92.
Halftime score—ASU 39, Wofford 36. 3-point goals—Wofford 5-24 (Bradley 4-7, Kroker 1-6, Koenig 0-1, Gramblin 0-3, Miller 0-5), ASU 6-21 (Hernandez 3-9, Ramirez 2-6, Thomas 1-2, Randolph 0-1, Spencer 0-1, Tossie 0-2). Rebounds—Wofford 41 (Koenig 10), ASU 48 (Mixon 16). Assists—Wofford 10 (Miller 5), ASU 21 (Randolph 4). Steals—Wofford 10 (Miller 6), ASU 13 (Spencer 4). Turnovers—Wofford 21, ASU 14. Total fouls—Wofford 21, ASU 23. Fouled out—ASU, Tossie. Technical fouls—Wofford bench.