By David Rogers. ATHENS, Ohio — Trailing by six at halftime, Appalachian State men’s basketball flexed their defensive muscle and dominated Ohio in the second, winning the back half of the Sun Belt-MAC Challenge game, 72-59, on Feb. 8.
Mountaineer redshirt senior Myles Tate poured in a career-high 27 points on the afternoon, his third 20+ point effort in as many games and the eleventh of the season.
The matchup was intriguing. App State, among the NCAA Division I leaders in team defense, faced a high-scoring Bobcats offense that was averaging more than 80 points per game. True to form, the Mountaineers limited Ohio to the Bobcats’ second-lowest scoring output of the season.
Three Mountaineers scored in double figures: Tate (27 points), Dior Conners (14) and Jalil Beaubrun (11). It was Beaubrun’s sixth straight game in scoring 10 points or more.
Graduate forward CJ Huntley had a relatively quiet night, scoring, with just seven points, but corralled a game-high nine rebounds and blocked a shot. From behind the arc, the Mountaineers made eight 3-pointers, half of them by Conners.
App State will now put its non-conference slate behind them and focus on finishing out the Sun Belt regular season. They are on the road in Conway, S.C. for a Thursday, Feb. 13 matchup with Coastal Carolina. Two days later (Feb. 15), they are back on the road to Atlanta, facing Georgia State.
KEY PERFORMERS
- APP – Myles Tate: 27 points, 7 assists, 1 steal, 5 rebounds
- APP – CJ Huntley: 9 rebounds, 7 points, 1 block
- APP – Dior Conners: 14 points, 1 assist, 1 steal
- APP – Jalil Beaubrun: 11 points, 2 rebounds, 1 block
- APP – Luke Wilson: 5 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocked shots
- OH – AJ Brown: 18 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal
- OH – Elijah Elliott: 14 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block
- OH – Jackson Paveletzke: 12 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block
