UNC belts ASU
Mountaineers fall

back into first-place tie
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

GREENSBORO — Suddenly, the Southern Conference’s North Division race is as close as it’s been all season. UNC Greensboro’s 79-55 clubbing of Appalachian State helped make it that way.

Both teams are looking to capture a coveted bye in the first round of the SoCon Tournament. Neither team has to win the North to get one, but it’s always nice to be a division champion. Appalachian State (16-12, 11-6 SoCon) is still tied for first with Chattanooga, but UNC Greensboro (14-10, 8-7) pulled to within a game of the Mountaineers and the Mocs in the loss column.

UNC Greensboro, which was pounded 91-68 by Appalachian State on Jan. 12, snapped a four-game losing streak.

Appalachian State, which played its fifth game in 10 days, gets a chance to take a few days to relax before hosting Furman this Thursday. The Mountaineers, who also host Niagara this Saturday in a BracketBusters game, close the season with four games in 10 days.

“We’ve had five games in 10 days here, and that’s tough,” Mountaineers coach Houston Fancher said. “That’s tough for anybody. The last couple on the road have been even tougher. Greensboro’s a tough basketball team, let’s not get it twisted. They were picked to win the league. Let’s not shove that under the rug.”

Appalachian State got off to a bad start against UNC Greensboro, falling behind 17-8 midway through the first half. UNC Greensboro led 33-18 with 2:56 left in the first half, but allowed Appalachian State to close to within 35-26 by halftime after a basket by Doug McLaughlin-Williams was followed by 3-point buckets by Ryann Abraham and Eduardo Bermudez.

“We didn’t finish the half well,” UNC Greensboro coach Mike Dement said. “We came out (in the second half) and hit a big jump shot and we pushed it back to 13 and it gave us a little confidence.”

UNC Greensboro slammed the door on the Mountaineers in the second when, leading 43-31, the Spartans went on a 13-3 run to take a 56-34 lead that was never seriously challenged. UNC Greensboro took its largest lead, 76-48, on a Kendall Toney 3-pointer with 3:28 left in the game.

Fancher, trying to shake things up after its loss to Elon, put Bermudez and Abraham into the starting lineup in place of Jeremi Booth and Donald Sims. However, little worked offensively for the Mountaineers, who shot 41 percent from the field and made just 4-of-16 shots from 3-point range.

Donte Minter led the Mountaineers in scoring with 12 points. Bermudez added eight points, but no other Mountaineer scored more than five points.

Sims, one of the Mountaineers’ top outside shooters, was limited to just 1-of-4 shooting and finished with four points. The bright spot for the Mountaineers was their foul shooting, where they made 15-of-20 attempts.

“We wanted to keep them in a half-court type of game,” UNC Greensboro’s Kyle Hines said. “They’re at their best when they’re running. We wanted to keep them in a half-court game.

UNC Greensboro got 26 points from Hines, who made 11-of-15 of his attempts. Ben Stywall added 15 points and Toney came off the bench to score 14.

“Hines is a phenomenal player,” Sims said. “He’s at home and he’s playing in front of his crowd. He had a statement to make that he was good and we weren’t going to take anything away from him.”

Fancher said the break would be good for the Mountaineers, but he also wants to see how the Mountaineers respond to the two road losses they had last week.

“They just whipped us down here today,” Fancher said. “We’ve got to find a way to respond. It’s going to be good for us to have some time to look at past games and find ways to improve there and look at our lineup and see what we want to do ahead.”

UNCG 79, Appalachian State 55
Appalachian State (16-12, 11-6)
Clayton 1-3 1-3 3, Minter 4-8 4-4 12, Abraham 2-5 0-0 5, Bermudez 2-4 3-5 8, Brand 1-4 3-4 5, Sims 1-4 2-2 4, Archer 0-0 0-0 0, Booth 2-4 0-0 5, McMillan 0-0 0-0 0, Highsmith 2-5 0-0 5, Bowne 2-4 0-0 4, McLaughlin-Williams 1-2 0-1 2. Totals 18-43 15-20 55.
UNC Greensboro (14-10, 8-7)
Stywall 5-6 4-6 15, Hines 11-15 4-6 26, Johnson 1-6 2-2 4, Koivisto 2-5 0-0 5, Olesiak 1-4 4-7 6, Sellers 0-0 0-0 0, Clement 0-1 0-0 0, Oliver 1-2 2-3 4, Hrdiman 0-0 0-0 0, Toney 5-9 1-2 14, Galic 0-0 1-2 1, Mitchell 0-0 0-0 0, Brown 1-3 2-3 4. Totals 27-51 20-31 79.
Halftime score—UNCG 35, ASU 26. 3-point goals—ASU 4-16 (Bermudez 1-2, Booth 1-2, Highsmith 1-3, Abraham 1-4, McLaughlin-Williams 0-1, Brand 0-2, Sims 0-2), UNCG 5-16 (Toney 3-5, Stywall 1-1, Koivisto 1-3, Hines 0-1, Johnson 0-1, Clement 0-1, Oliver 0-1). Rebounds—ASU 25 (Clayton 6), UNCG 32 (Stywall 9). Assists—ASU 10 (Clayton, Sims 4), UNCG 10 (Johnson 8). Turnovers—ASU 22, UNCG 12. Total fouls—ASU 29, UNCG 21. Fouled out—ASU, Bowne. Technical fouls—None. A—1,831.