Elon holds

off Mountaineers
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

A bad start. Two failed comeback attempts. Another loss to Elon.

Appalachian State had its chances at Alumni Gym, but Elon stood firm Thursday night in its 76-70 victory in front of 1,023 fans, many who arrived well after the Mountaineers had fallen behind 8-2 and never caught up.

The Mountaineers (16-9, 11-5 SoCon) were able to stay in first place of the North Division since Chattanooga lost to College of Charleston, also on Thursday night.

But the Mountaineers could have also gone up two games on Chattanooga (15-11, 10-6), and with a win Saturday over UNC Greensboro, could have gone up three games on the Spartans (13-10, 7-7).

“We’ll wake up tomorrow and still be in first place, but I told them after the game that I don’t care what the final score of any of the other games were, that’s not OK,” Mountaineers coach Houston Fancher said. “We should be in first place by two or three if we would have taken care of our game at home against Charleston.

It’s not OK to keep giving those things back, because eventually those things are going to keep coming back and bite us if we don’t take care of our business.”

“The legacy of this team cannot be about missed opportunities,” Fancher added.

Instead, it was Elon (10-15, 8-9) that took advantage of an opportunity to inch closer to earning one of five automatic byes into the first round of the Southern Conference Tournament. The Phoenix, seventh in the overall SoCon standings, is two games behind UNC Greensboro, which currently holds the fifth spot in the overall SoCon standings. College of Charleston (12-13, 7-8) holds the sixth position.

“We don’t really talk about that,” Elon coach Ernie Nestor said. “When you go through a stretch like we did, it’s like you feel like you’re on the satellite of college basketball and you’re watching a part of it, even though you’re a college basketball team. Now we feel like we’re back in the game.”

Nestor cautioned that even if the Phoenix can’t gain one of the five byes into the tournament, it is still possible to win the tournament without one

“Seeding is a great thing to talk about, but it doesn’t mean anything,” Nestor said. “If you get 10 points because you’re seeded higher, than seeding is very significant. All it does is tell you what color jersey you’re wearing. You have to be playing well when you’re in a tournament. Obviously it’s a three or four day thing.

Just because he hasn’t been won in four days, doesn’t mean it can’t be won in four days. It just means it hasn’t been done up to this point.”

The Phoenix can look at its win over Appalachian State as a possible boost into its remaining three games.

Elon, which has never been swept by an Appalachian State men’s basketball team in the five years it has been in the Southern Conference, never trailed the Mountaineers and at one point, held a 14-point lead.

Elon made sure that even when Appalachian State made a run, the Mountaineers would never take the lead.

The Phoenix preserved its win by making 9-of-10 foul shots in the final 42.1 seconds, even though Eduardo Bermudez dropped two 3-point baskets, the final one with just seconds left in the game.

When it was finished, the Phoenix hit 25-of-35 from the foul line.

“They played better over the course of the game than we did,” Fancher said. “There were about 15 minutes of the game tonight when we played better than they did, then the bigger portion of the game they played better than we did, so they ended up on top.”

Appalachian State made a brief run at the Phoenix at the beginning of the second half. Elon held a 31-21 halftime lead, but Appalachian State opened the second with an 11-3 run, capped by an inside basket by Kellen Brand with 16:51 left in the game. Elon responded with a 6-0 run of its own and Appalachian State never got closer than four points the rest of the game.

Elon eventually went up 14 points two times, the final being 55-41 with 7:21 left in the game. Elon’s Brett James finished with 22 points and seven rebounds, while teammate Brian waters scored 15 points, helped by hitting 10-of-10 from the free throw line.

Montell Watson scored 16 points despite playing with a stress fracture in his foot. Ola Atoyebi added 12 points and seven boards.

Appalachian State stayed in the game, especially in the final three minutes, by going inside to Donte Minter.

The 6-foot-9 center responded with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting, as the Mountaineers shot 55.2 percent from the field (16-of-29) in the second half.

Jeremy Clayton added 11 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Brand and Bermudez each scored 12 points.

Elon 76, Appalachian State 70
Appalachian State (16-9, 11-5)
Clayton 3-9, 5-6 11, Minter 8-13 4-6 20, Sims 2-4 3-4 9, Booth 1-6 0-0 2, Brand 5-7 1-3 12, Abraham 1-3 0-1 2, Bermudez 5-7 0-2 12, Bowne 1-4 0-0 2, McLaughlin-Williams 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-53 13-22 70.
Elon (10-15, 8-9)
Constantine 0-0 2-2 2, Douglas 0-2 0-0 0, Waters 2-3 10-10 15, Watson 4-10 6-8 16, James 10-20 2-8 22, Long 3-5 1-1 7, Sanders 0-3 0-0 0, Atoyebi 4-8 4-6 12, Grable 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 24-52 25-35 76.
Halftime score—Elon 31, ASU 21. 3-point goals—ASU 5-15 (Bermudez 2-3, Sims 2-4, Brand 1-2, Clayton 0-1, Abraham 0-2), Elon 3-15 (Watson 2-4, Waters 1-2, Long 0-1, Sanders 0-2, James 0-4). Rebounds—ASU 30 (Clayton 10), Elon 33 (Waters 8). Assists—ASU (Sims 4), Elon 10 (Watson 7). Turnovers—ASU 11, Elon 10. Total fouls—ASU 27, Elon 23. Fouled out—ASU, Brand, Abraham. Technical fouls—ASU, Clayton, Abraham. A—1,023.