By Jacob Plecker. BOONE, N.C. — For the first time since Feb. 18, 2023, the App State Mountaineers dropped a home men’s basketball contest, falling 77-63 to the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks in the first leg of the MAC-SBC Challenge. It’s also the first time since 2013 the Mountaineers lost their home opener.
Despite the result, eight different Mountaineers found the basket with Myles Tate leading all scorers, dropping in 21 points. In his first collegiate contest, Michael Marcus Jr. tallied nine points on a perfect 3-3 from the field, while Jackson Threadgill also scored nine points in his first game with the Mountaineers.
Turnovers played a large part in the App State (0-1) loss, coughing up the ball 19 times, which led to 10 RedHawk (1-0) points. That is in sharp contrast to a season ago when App State turned the ball over 15 times or more in only four contests.
Tight first half
App State started fast to open the season, running out to an early four-point lead by the first media timeout. Tate played a large role in the hot start, nailing two 3-pointers, while Threadgill and Huntley each buried free throws.
Luke Wilson made his presence felt early in the contest and helped the Mountaineer crowd out of their seats with a thunderous slam at the 14:50 mark, capping off a solo 4-0 run for the redshirt freshman. The lead grew to as large as seven after Tate picked off a pass that led to a fast break layup.
After Peter Suder hit a floater to bring the RedHawks within five, Tate’s tenth point of the contest shot the lead back up to seven by the 13-minute mark of the first half. Miami and Suder answered right back with a layup, plus a foul, to trim its deficit to four by the under-12 timeout.
With the lead now at four, CJ Huntley’s aggressiveness paid off with two free throws to push the App State lead back to six with 10 minutes to play in the half, but the RedHawks and the explosiveness of their backcourt tied the game at 22 with just over seven minutes remaining before intermission.
The lead changed hands four times over the final seven minutes of the half, with both teams jockeying for position to open the season. Dior Conners, playing in his first NCAA Division I game, scored his first basket with a three-pointer to push App State ahead. Miami took a three-point lead, its largest lead of the first half, just before the final media timeout.
A top-of-the-key three by Huntley propelled the Mountaineers ahead with 50 seconds to play in the period, but a late three by Kam Craft gave the RedHawks a one-point lead at halftime.
Tate’s 11 points led all scorers in the first 20 minutes as he shot 4-6 from the field to go along with three rebounds and three assists. Huntley started the game hot from the field as well, tallying nine. Both teams shot less than 40 percent from the field in the opening frame, but Miami’s 42 percent clip from three was the difference in a tightly contested first half.
Second half, faltering
A third 3-pointer in four attempts from Tate gave the Mountaineers the lead back 30 seconds into the second half, but Miami got hot, hitting five of its next seven shots to take a six-point lead by the under-16 timeout.
The Redhawks pushed their lead to eight by the 14:10 mark, but two straight threes by Anthony Alston and Marcus Jr. shrunk the deficit back to two with just under 13 minutes to play. Alston’s three was his first collegiate points.
Miami answered the quick threes from App State by scoring the game’s next six points to reclaim an eight-point advantage. The lead grew to nine by the under-eight timeout as Jackson Kotecki made a layup.
Threadgill’s fifth point of the game closed the Mountaineer deficit back to seven by the 7:35 mark, but the RedHawks continued to shoot it well to grow their lead. Three straight threes from Suder and Craft ballooned the RedHawk lead to 12 with five minutes to play.
The fourth three-pointer from Tate and a free throw by Marcus Jr. trimmed the score back to seven with four minutes to play, but it was Miami that stayed hot to close the game as it scored 10 of the final 14 points to claim a 14-point win in Boone.
Top Performers
Playing all but two minutes of the game, Tate’s 21 points led all scorers and marked his fourth career 20-point performance. He was also efficient, nailing eight of his 15 attempts and four of his seven threes. In just 14 minutes of play, Marcus, Jr. tallied nine points in his first collegiate game on 3-of-3 shooting from beyond the arc. Threadgill played well in his first game at App State, scoring nine points while also blocking two shots, which led the team.
Up Next
App State will take the floor again on Wednesday night, facing off with the St. Andrews Knights at the Holmes Convocation Center. Wednesday’s game will be a part of a doubleheader with the Mountaineer women. The women will tip off at five with the men’s game to follow approximately 30 minutes after. Both games can be streamed on ESPN+.
