By David Rogers. WILMINGTON, N.C. — This time, Myles Tate took the shot — and it was a game-winner, too.
Just three days after the App State redshirt senior earned a winning assist on a play designed for him to take the last shot — but didn’t — he took the shot that put the Mountaineers ahead, 64-63, with 24 seconds remaining against Sam Houston State on Nov. 27. It was a lead they would never relinquish. Including two late free throws made by forward Jalil Beaubrun and stellar defensive play, the Mountaineers won the day, 66-63.
Played at Trask Coliseum as the opening game of the Live Oak Bank Holiday Classic, a men’s basketball tournament hosted by the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, the game drew 2,519 basketball fans to the 5,200 capacity indoor arena.
At least some of the mid-week, pre-Thanksgiving allure was the matchup dynamics: Sam Houston coming into the game as the No. 44 team in the country in Scoring Offense (out of 355 NCAA Division I programs), averaging 84.6 points per game, vs. App State’s reputation as a tough defensive opponent. Both teams came into the UNCW-hosted matchup with 3-2 records.
By most measures, the Nov. 27 encounter was a defensive battle from start to finish, the lead see-sawing back and forth. The largest lead by either team was five points, App State early at 17-12, and Sam Houston late at 57-52. The lead changed hands 16 times and was tied 11 times during the 40 minutes of playing time.
When the Bearkats’ guard Lamar Wilkerson made a short jumper with five minutes remaining, giving Sam Houston its biggest lead of the afternoon, momentum seemed to have shifted to the Huntsville, Texas-based public university, with an enrollment of more than 20,000 students across 80 degree programs, a school size similar to App State.
But the Mountaineers were far from done. Just over 30 seconds later, Sunday’s buzzer-beating hero against William & Mary, junior guard Dior Conners, drained a 3-pointer to jumpstart App State’s closing, 14-6 run to win the day.
Conners accounted for six of those closing points, including the dagger from behind the arc but also three consecutive free throws when he was fouled by Wilkerson while attempting another 3-pointer.
App State’s improvement at the charity stripe in this game was significant to the outcome. The Mountaineers were successful on 17-of-22 free throw attempts (77 percent), which is a marked improvement over a 59 percent season average that has them in the bottom 10 of the 355 teams in NCAA Division I. In addition to Conners’ sharpshooting from the line in the closing minutes, the Mountaineers’ Beaubrun made the final two free throws to ice the game.
Although Wilkerson recorded a game-high 22 points for the Bearkats, Conners led the Mountaineers with 19 points, closely followed by Tate’s 17 points. Beaubrun pulled down a game-high 9 rebounds.
Aside from improvement at the free throw line, the Mountaineers were 7-of-24 (29 percent) from behind the arc, while limiting the Bearkats to just 3-of-14 made shots from long distance.
With Thanksgiving Day off, App State will play Colgate at noon on Friday, then UNCW in the tournament finale on Saturday. In the other tournament game on Nov. 27, Colgate defeated UNCW, 72-59.
