BOONE, N.C. – The App State women’s basketball team (3-5) defeated Johnson C. Smith (4-4), 107-52, on Saturday at Holmes Convocation Center, reaching 100 points for the first time since Nov. 29, 2010 when the Black and Gold hosted Elon. The triple-digit victory is the first under head coach Angel Elderkin’s tenure and 19th in program history. The last time App State scored 107 points in a game was against High Point on Feb. 25, 1987.
“I’m just really proud. It’s fun to go into a locker room and experience so much joy with the team that a week ago, they say that basketball brings you the highs and brings you the lows, and I think we were at a really low point on Saturday. But we took the lesson, we learned from it, and we grew,” said Elderkin.
“This is a tough week. We’re in exams, so it can be tough,” added the Mountaineer mentor. “Practices cannot always be the most intense, but I thought our team played with an unbelievable amount of energy and passion and we just really focused on us. I think it would have been easy in the second half to get complacent and I thought our team found another gear. So just, a really fun day for the Mountaineers.”
Every Mountaineer that hit the court scored points, with five scoring double digits. Sophomore Emily Carver and graduate student Brooke Bigott led the Black and Gold, both netting 15 points. Carver went 3 of 4 from the free throw line while Bigott drained 3 of 6 treys. Redshirt senior Janay Sanders tallied the second-most points (12), while senior Taylor Lewis and sophomore Zada Porter each scored ten points. Porter also dished out a team-high five assists. Freshman Alexis Black pulled down a team and career high eight rebounds and went 3 of 4 from the charity stripe.
App State scored 48 points off the bench and 27 off turnovers.
Johnson C. Smith took an early 5-0 lead in the first quarter, but App State was quick to erase the deficit, as a Bigott 3-pointer put the Mountaineers up 11-9 for the only lead change of the game.
The Mountaineers jumped ahead 46-24 by halftime and maintained a steady lead in the third quarter with an 11-point run within a two-minute span. Carver, Bigott, Sanders, Porter, Lewis, and freshman Chaé Harris combined for 34 points in the third quarter alone.
In the fourth quarter, junior Dane Bertolina and redshirt junior A’Lea Gilbert drained 3 of 3 of their shots as the Mountaineers eclipsed 100 points. Freshmen Nadiyah Byard, Lexi Grant, and Lewis also recorded points in the final quarter.
UP NEXT
The Mountaineers will hit the road to take on North Carolina Central in Durham, N.C. on Dec. 15 at 5:30 p.m. Thursday’s game will be available for streaming on the NCCU Sport Network. The Black and Gold will then head to Ann Arbor, Mich. to clash with Michigan on Dec. 17 at 1 p.m. Saturday’s game will be available to stream on B1G+.
App State will close out its non-conference slate on Dec. 20 at 2 p.m. as it hosts Gardner-Webb. The game will be the Mountaineers’ Ugly Sweater Game, which fans can enter the ugly sweater contest for a chance to win a set of new airpods. Santa will also make an appearance at Tuesday’s game and will be available for photos.
