By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — Both Appalachian State and Troy had averaged close to 75 points in offensive scoring coming into their Jan. 14 game at the Holmes Convocation Center. And yet, what evolved as a defensive battle did not come as a surprise to Mountaineer head coach Dustin Kerns. App State took the lead early, with 15:39 remaining in the first half — and kept it, emerging with a convincing, 58-45 victory.
“Troy’s game against Georgia State, they were in the 50s,” said Kerns in the postgame press conference. “They have been winning in the 50s and low 60s. They force 16 turnovers a game and they score on a lot of them. Their guard, Nelson Phillips, set a record with 12 steals in a game. It was a big deal for us tonight to take care of the ball and deal with the pressure. I thought our guys handled that really, really well. So yeah, we expected this to be an old-fashioned fist fight.”
While there were no actual fisticuffs, it was a defensive battle royale, to be sure. Disruptive defensive play by both teams resulted in 16 turnovers committed by Troy, 13 by App State. Neither team was able to muster much scoring from the perimeter, each only successful on five 3-point shots.
Troy came into the game atop the Sun Belt Conference standings at 4-1 in league play, 12-6 overall. In App State, the Trojans were meeting a team that was 9-9 overall, 2-3 in Sun Belt play.
According to historical records kept by the Mountaineers’ sports information department, App State allowing only 45 points to a Sun Belt opponent was the fewest by a Mountaineer team since 2015, when App State defeated Louisiana-Monroe, 68-43. In that game, too, the opponent came into the game with a first-place standing in the Sun Belt.
Notes published by the sports information department prior to the game reported that the Mountaineers were the league’s leaders in field goal percentage defense — and they didn’t disappoint against Troy. Keeping the Trojans off-balance and making shots difficult, App State held the visitors to just a 26.7 percent field goal percentage, including just 16.1 percent from beyond the 3-point arc.
In his opening statement at the post-game press conference, Kerns was quick to thank the students and fans who provided a lot of energy in the Holmes Center. “You guys helped us get a win,” said Kerns of the 2,377 spectators, the vast majority of which were supporting the Mountaineers on this cold, blustery Saturday afternoon.
“Our guys were really well connected and we were tough,” said Kerns of the Mountaineers’ performances, individually and as a team.
Nine Mountaineers took to the hardwoods against Troy, none more impactful offensively than Terence Harcum, Donovan Gregory, and C J Huntley, with 15, 11 and 9 points, respectively. Xavion Brown and Christopher Mantis added 8 points each and freshman Justin Abson contributed 7 points to the team’s balanced scoring effort.
Abson, Huntley and Brown were the leading rebounders, with 8, 7, and 7, respectfully. Altogether, the Mountaineers collected 40 rebounds on the night, 33 on defense to put an end to Trojan opportunities.
Abson continued to be among the nation’s leaders in blocked shots, adding two more to bring his season long total to 41, the 13th-highest total, nationwide.
Now 10-9 overall and 3-3 in Sun Belt play, the Mountaineers next go on the road next week for a Jan. 19 rematch with Coastal Carolina in Conway, S.C., then a Jan. 21 venture up to Old Dominion.
With the loss, Troy falls into a six-team knot at the top of the conference standings at 4-2, with Louisiana, Southern Miss, Georgia Southern, Marshall and Louisiana-Monroe all sharing identical conference records. App State, Texas State, and James Madison are all close behind at 3-3.
