Mountaineers hold

off pesky Elon
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

Beating Elon has rarely been easy for Appalachian State. The Mountaineers have never swept the Phoenix during Elon’s five-year tenure in the Southern Conference, and Appalachian State lost to Elon at the Holmes Center last year.

Appalachian State’s 56-52 win over the Phoenix in front of 2,359 at the Holmes Center Monday night wasn’t any easier than past victories over Elon. It also did not help the Mountaineers to be missing leading scorer, 6-foot-9 center Donte Minter, who was out with the flu.

Appalachian State was already missing Ike Butts, who is also 6-9, because of a knee injury. Jay McMillan also did not suit up because of the flu.

It left Appalachian State (13-7, 8-3 SoCon) shorthanded, but the Phoenix were hardly sympathetic. Elon (7-13, 5-7) had problems of its own as Brett James also played with an illness.

The Phoenix, however, had not played since Jan. 24, while the Mountaineers were playing their third game in five days, with the previous two games being on the road. Appalachian State was also playing two days after a tough loss at Chattanooga Saturday.

“As is all of our games with Elon, that was a war tonight,” Fancher said. “It was a physical basketball game.

Elon always ends up drawing us into their tempo. On a night when our offense was less than stellar, our defense really stepped up and played well tonight.”

With Minter out, 6-7 forward Jeremy Clayton was left to pick up some of the slack. Clayton scored 12 points, but his biggest impact was on the defensive side of the court. He pulled down 17 rebounds and blocked six shots, giving him his third double-double of the season and his 17th of his career.

“Obviously he’s an excellent player,” Elon coach Ernie Nestor said. “When you have a kid who can play in a game and never score a point and be a positive impact for his team, that is a kid that is extremely valuable.”

The six blocks tied him for first with Ricky Nedd on the Appalachian State career list with 193.

“It’s kind of like an instinct,” Clayton said of blocking shots. “I like to set them up, especially those little guards. I like to let them break me down and think they have me and then come from behind.”

Appalachian State was held to 37 percent shooting, which was a season low. The 22 points the Mountaineers scored by halftime were just two more than their season low of 20 they scored in a loss to East Tennessee State.

But the Mountaineers also kept the clamps on Elon’s offense. The Phoenix hit 34.5 percent of its shots, including 3-of-12 from 3-point range. James ended up leading the Phoenix in scoring with 16 points, followed by Ola Atoyebi with 12.

Appalachian State got 17 points from Kellen Brand and 12 from Jeremi Booth off the bench. The Mountaineers also helped themselves from the foul line, hitting 21-of-33 of their free throws.

“Missing Donte was very hard,” Clayton said. “He’s one of our leading scorers. He’s one of our go-to guys down the stretch. He would have been very good to have this game. You just give him the ball and let him go to work.”

It helped them to make foul shots since they did not score from the field in the game’s final 5:22. That shot was a Clayton dunk off an assist from Donald Sims, who did not hit a shot from the field the entire game.

Sims and fellow Appalachian State point guard Ryann Abraham were shut out from the field. The two combined to shoot 0-for-9, but Sims hit 9-of-10 foul shots, including four straight down the stretch that gave the Mountaineers a 55-49 lead.

“Obviously Jeremy was incredible tonight,” Fancher said. “On a night when our leading scorer and leading rebounder (Minter) is sitting at the house sick and our two point guards don’t make a shot from the perimeter, we found a way to win a basketball game and hopefully that’s a sign of a pretty good basketball team.”

Last year, the Mountaineers lost 64-63 to the Phoenix at the Holmes Center, but beat Elon 73-62 in Burlington. Fancher feels that the deliberate style coached by Nestor helps keep the Phoenix close to teams that like to run.

“They’re a great defensive team,” Mountaineers coach Houston Fancher said of Elon. “Ernie (Nestor) is a super defensive coach and they do a great job of keeping you guessing which defense they are in and they do a good job of possessing the ball. They shorten the game. There are fewer possessions in the game because they hold the ball for a while.”

ASU 56, Elon 52
Elon (7-13, 5-7)
Sanders 4-9 0-0 8, Atoyebi 6-12 0-1 12, Waters 0-5 0-0 0, Watson 2-6 1-2 7, James 5-12 5-6 16, Carter 0-1 0-0 0, Long 1-7 2-2 4, Grable 1-4 1-1 3, Douglas 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 20-58 9-12 52.
Appalachian State (13-7 8-3)
Clayton 4-9 4-8 12, Bowne 2-6 0-0 4, Sims 0-6 9-10 9, Bermudez 0-1 0-0 0, Brand 6-11 4-7 17, Abraham 0-3 2-4 2, Booth 4-6 2-4 12, Highsmith 0-0 0-0 0, McLaughlin-Williams 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 16-43 21-33 56.
Halftime score—Elon 23, ASU 21. 3-point goals—Elon 3-12 (Watson 2-5, James 1-2, Long 0-1, Douglas 0-1), ASU 3-9 (Booth 2-3, Brand 1-1, Clayton 0-1, Sims 0-1, McLaughlin-Williams 0-1). Rebounds—Elon 34 (James 10), ASU 40 (Clayton 17). Assists—Elon 9 (Waters, Watson 3), ASU 10 (Sims 3). Steals—Elon 9 (Watson 3), ASU 4 (Clayton 2). Turnovers—Elon 12, ASU 15. Total fouls—Elon 23, ASU 16. Fouled out—Elon, Watson. Technical fouls—None. A—2,359.