By Zach Smith. BOONE, N.C. — Christmas came early in Boone Thursday afternoon as App State rallied from a 10-point, fourth quarter deficit, defeating Mercer, 81-78.
The Mountaineers were led by a 31-point performance from Faith Alston, marking a new career-best for the senior guard. Guards J’Mani Ingram (17) and Alexis Black (11) also posted double-digit points. Sophomore forward Rylan Moffitt grabbed a team-high eight rebounds while Alston dished out six assists, also a team-best.
While App State only led for just over 90 seconds, the game never got away from the Mountaineers.
The first quarter was a sign of how the rest of the matchup would go. Neither team was able to break away through the first half of the period until Mercer went on a 6-0 run to push their lead to eight. The Mountaineers responded with stifling defense, only allowing two more points from the Bears over the final 3:40.
Mercer opened their lead to a 10-point difference early in the second period but, once again, App State responded with stifling defense. The Mountaineers went on a 8-0 run, thanks in large part to consecutive makes from beyond the arc by Black and Alston. Later in the quarter, both teams traded scoring runs. Mercer’s 6-0 run was effectively canceled out by seven consecutive Mountaineer points. Despite App State’s scoring runs, the Bears took a three-point lead into the break.
After the Break: More Defense — and then some
The second half looked to be a defensive battle through the first minute of the third frame, but that proved deceptive. Mercer scored the first five points out of the locker room but the teams traded scoring runs, again.
Alston went down with an apparent lower-body injury early in the third quarter and immediately left the court under her own power. Alston eventually returned to the game later in the period, scoring five consecutive points. The Mountaineers used Alston’s solo 5-0 run to cut the deficit to three and, following a Mercer jumper and a J’Mani Ingram free-throw, went into the final 10 minutes trailing by four.
The fourth quarter didn’t look good for the home side through the first 2:37 of the frame as Mercer went on a 8-2 run to regain a 10-point lead. Following Mercer’s early run, though, App State focused on defense. The Mountaineers held the Bears scoreless over the next 2:30, scoring seven over that span. With their defense clicking, App State only allowed 14 points over the final 7:23, with half of those points coming from the charity stripe. Alston became a bigger threat as well, scoring 16 points in just over 6:30 and leading the Mountaineer comeback.
With just under one minute on the clock, Black cashed in on a free-throw to give the Mountaineers their first lead since the 6:33 mark of the first quarter. Following a Mercer made free-throw, Alston drove down the court to cash in on a layup to regain the lead for App State, and the Mountaineers never looked back.
A big focus for App State was junior guard Emily Carver’s injury that kept her on the bench. Head coach Angel Elderkin spoke on the team’s mindset despite being down their second-highest scorer.
“The mantra going into today was ‘woman down, woman up,’” Elderkin said. “Not playing with Emily Carver, we knew that was going to be something that could impact us offensively. But I don’t think people understand what she brings defensively. But with that being said, I thought we had our players step up today in a way that we needed heading into conference play.”
Elderkin also praised Alston’s work ethic and explained her impact on the rest of the team.
“The locker room was special because, you know, [Alston] had 30, we’re all aware of that, she got the game ball,” Elderkin said. “[The team] spoke to being taken out, going to get taped up, and coming back in and what that meant from a leadership standpoint, that she’s the driver of this bus, and how important and impactful that was for her teammates. They saw her giving her all so it just made them want to give more.”
While the scoring was the headline of the game, Alston explained that the focus in the fourth quarter was defense.
“Our whole focus is defense,” Alston said. “Our defense generates offense… We take a big pride in defense and that was really the message in the whole fourth quarter. Don’t even focus on offense, focus on defense, that will get us going.”
Thursday’s game was App State’s final matchup before conference play. Elderkin spoke on the confidence level of the team, especially around the uncertainty of Carver’s recovery timeline.
“I think before we head into conference play, this was a good game because now we played without Emily [Carver] and we’re unsure as to when she will be back,” Elderkin said. “And so, we’ve had to put some different people in some different roles. Obviously, that’s not fun to do after you just go through your non-conference and you think you’ve got a rhythm.”
Elderkin was sure to shout out the players who stepped up to fill that role against Mercer.
“You see players like Alexis Black, J’Mani Ingram, Mackenzie [Drout], Zada [Porter],” Elderkin said. “You see all those players stepping up and that’s what we’re going to need to do because it’s a new season. We come back, 0-0, and we gotta get ready for a tough Sun Belt Conference.”
With the win, App State improves to 6-5. The Mountaineers will travel to Louisiana next Saturday (Dec. 30) to open conference play. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+.
