UNC-Greensboro edges Mountaineers, 85-83

By Steve Behr

If UNC Greensboro were a cat, it would have just eight lives left to live.

Appalachian State’s Donald Sims drained a dramatic 3-point basket to force an overtime period with the Spartans.

But Marcus’ Wright’s 3-point shot off a rebound was taken just after the Holmes Center’s buzzer went off. The Mountaineers ended up falling 85-83 to their Southern Conference, North Division rival after taking a lead late in the second half.

Wright’s shot would have given the Mountaineers a win, but the freshman did not get to the ball until there was less than a second left in the game. He was chasing down a shot that guard Ryann Abraham took after driving down the lane.

“It was a good shot,” Abraham said of his attempt. “I’ve just got to finish the play and that’s it. But it should have not been in the position where we’re doing two and instead we should have been winning the game like we’re supposed to and we didn’t do that.”

It was just one of Appalachian State’s two losses Saturday. The Mountaineers’ leading scorer, Kellen Brand, strained his right foot late with 14.3 seconds left in the overtime and is questionable for the Mountaineers’ showdown with Davidson on Monday.

Brand left the game with 11 points.

Had the Mountaineers found a way to win the game, Sims’ basket would have been one to remember in the brief history of the Holmes Center. He actually missed his first attempt, but his shot was rebounded by ASU center Ike Butts.

The freshman immediately got the ball back to Sims, whose off-balanced bucket hit nothing but net and looking like the crowd of 1,424 would go home happy.

“I really couldn’t see it,” Sims said. “I just threw it up there for luck and I heard the crowd go crazy.”
It got even better when the Mountaineers seemed ready to ride the momentum into an overtime victory when Josh Hunter scored the first bucket of the extra period. But Mikko Koivisto answered with a 3-pointer and then two foul shots to give the Spartans a 78-75 lead and take away any momentum gained by Sims.

UNC Greensboro’s Damian Eargle, who scored 25 points and pulled down 11 rebounds, helped stop the Mountaineers’ momentum. He hit two free throws and teammate Ben Stywall, hit another with nine seconds left to give the Spartans an 85-83 lead.

Abraham, who led the Mountaineers in scoring with 21 points, drove the length of the court, but his layup attempt didn’t fall. Wright chased down the rebound beyond the 3-point arc, but his potential game-winning basket was attempted just after the buzzer had sounded.

“We wanted to get the ball to the rim,” Mountaineers coach Houston Fancher said. “We felt like we could get a whistle if we could get the ball to the rim. We had a ball-screen set up for him and he rejected the ball screen and went to the right side there. He might have gotten nudged there a little bit, but the referees were going to let him make the play. Unfortunately, Marcus’ three went up right after the horn went off.”

UNC Greensboro (2-11, 1-3 SoCon), which snapped a 10-game losing streak, went into the game shooting just 36 percent from the field during the entire season. However, the Spartans had shot 46 percent in an 80-76 loss to Western Carolina last Thursday.

The Spartans built on that by hitting 51.7 percent from the field against the Mountaineers (6-6, 3-1) and 59.3 percent in the second half.

“We shot one of highest percentages we have all season,” UNC Greensboro coach Mike Dement said. “We actually shot pretty well at Western and we told our guys they should be confident because we have really struggled to make shots.”

Eargle went into the game averaging 5.8 points per game, but had 13 points against Western. His 25 points were the most scored by a UNCG freshman since 1993 when Scott Hartzell scored 25.

Stywall added 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Both he and Eargle pulled down 11 rebounds. Koivisto scored 16 points and dished out seven assists.

“Eagle played the game of his life today,” Fancher said. “He was efficient, made buckets and rebounded over us. And Stywall always plays extremely hard I’m a big fan of Stywall. He’s a really good basketball player. He gets the most out of his ability.”

Neither team put together a big lead until the Mountaineers, trailing 50-48, went on a 12-2 run to take a 60-54 advantage. But the Spartans patiently recovered and tied the game 65-65 on a Koivisto 3-pointer with 2:47 left.

Sims finished with 15 points after hitting 5-of-11 from 3-point range. Butts also had 11 points and eight rebounds. Hunter scored nine points and 11 rebounds.

Appalachian State turned the ball over just 11 times, well below their season average of 18.8, which is 337th in the nation. Greensboro finished with 10 turnovers, also under its average of 17.7.
“There are a lot of good things we can pull from this game that we feel good about,” Fancher said. “But when it’s all said and done, I’d rather go back to having 28 turnovers and winning the ballgame, to be honest with you.”

UNC Greensboro 85, Appalachian State 83

UNC Greensboro (2-11, 1-3)
Eargle 10-16, 5-5 25, Jackson 2-5 0-1 4, Koivisto 5-13 4-4 16, Oliver 2-4 1-2 7, Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Clement 1-3 2-2 7, Toney 2-5 2-2 7, Stywall 8-11 3-6 19, Brown 1-2 1-2 3. Totals 31-60 18-24 85.
Appalachian State (6-6, 3-1)
Hunter 3-7 3-5 9, Butts 4-6 3-3 11, Abraham 7-15 4-4 21, Bermudez 3-6 0-0 7, Brand 4-11 2-2 11, Sims 5-12 0-0 15, Dowdell 0-1 0-0 0, Hughes 0-0 0-2 0, Booth 0-3 0-0 0, Wright 1-3 1-2 4, Webb 0-3 1-2 1, Williamson 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 29-70 14-20 83.
Halftime score—UNCG 31, ASU 30.  3-point goals¸—UNCG 36 (Stywall, Eargle 11), ASU 41 (Hunter 11). Assists—UNCG 17 (Koivisto 7, ASU 18 (Abraham 6). Turnovers—UNCG 10, ASU 11. Total fouls—UNCG 20, ASU 22. Fouled out—Eargle, Brown. Technical fouls—None. Att.—1,424.