Daily Archives: January 22, 2012

Appalachian State Basketball: Socon Basketball 2011-2012 Midseason Report

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The race for the top seeds in the Southern Conference tournament in the North division will almost absolutely go into the final weekend of regular season play.

Elon 4-3

App St 4-4

WCU 3-4

UNCG 3-4

UTC 3-5

Samford 2-4

It is somewhat odd that Samford has only played 6 league games while Appalachian and Chattanooga have both played 8 league games. Chattanooga has yet to win a road game but are getting closer after a 1 point loss at Elon. The Phoenix’ conference wins include The Citadel, Chattanooga, UNCG, and Furman, who have a combined record of 10-20 in SoCon play. Elon still has to face Appalachian and Western Carolina twice, Wofford, Davidson and Charleston. Appalachian and Elon currently hold the top 2 seeds, and are the only teams in the North with 4 conference wins. Elon travels to Western on Thursday while Appalachian travels to UNCG. Appalachian hosts Elon next Saturday. This will be a huge week for the North standings as far as tiebreakers go later in the season.

Appalachian State Basketball: Appalachian @ Wofford 1/19/2012

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The road trip to Wofford would be interesting one the Mountaineers. After playing at home against an arch rival, they travelled to Spartanburg to play in the high school gym that Benjamin Johnson Arena. All kidding aside, Wofford is another team that prefers a slower pace. Wofford has represented the Southern Conference in the NCAA tournament the last two seasons, but finally lost a lot of their starters who were important in those runs. I was feeling very confident about the Mountaineers after the close loss to Davidson and the Mountaineers had been consistent in covering those high single digit spreads of late.

Wofford blistered the nets all night long, shooting 54% for the game, and 63% in the second half. Andre Williamson had a big game with 20 points and 9 rebounds, but Omar Carter and Jamal Trice combined to shoot 4 of 16 from the floor without a three pointer. Wofford walked away with a 12 point win and Appalachian’s streak of covers was over. I also fell to 7-5 on the season.

Appalachian State Basketball: Appalachian vs. Davidson 1/14/2012

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In what is always a highly anticipated game, Davidson made the trek up the mountain to face Appalachian on a Saturday afternoon. Davidson and Appalachian always play a very physical game when playing each other. Davidson had an unblemished league record and had been blowing opponents out in their three previous conference games. The Wildcats had defeated UNCG by 29, Georgia Southern by 22 and Western Carolina by 21. Considering that, I was thinking that the oddsmakers would favor Davidson by 6-7 points. When the line posted that morning I was excited to see a spread that favored Davidson by 8.5 As close as these two teams play historically, I jumped all over the Mountaineers again.

Davidson was in control the entire game until the Mountaineers took the their first lead of the game at 70-69 with just under 5 minutes to play. Davidson then went on a 10-0 run highlighted by the play of De’Mon Brooks who scored seven of the points in that run. With 2:20 to play Davidson was up 79-70 and the Appalachian short streak of covering spreads was in jeopardy. Omar Carter and Jamal Trice both hit late three to bring the margin to four points for the visiting Wildcats. Appalachian played a tough game and proved to the league that Davidson is beatable, and once again, covered for the fourth straight game. My record improved to 7-4

Appalachian State Basketball: Appalachian vs. Furman 1/12/2012

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With the longest road trips of the season out of the way, Appalachian returned to the Holmes Dome for the week to face the Furman Paladins for an ESPN3 broadcast. Appalachian and Furman appeared to be very evenly matched teams. Furman is another team that is tough to play, as they prefer a slower pace. Furman is a team that can beat anyone on any night depending on their shooting. Furman had just been blasted five days earlier at by Charleston at home by 23 points. Appalachian was favored by 3 points and I felt this was another nice easy play to pick the Mountaineers to cover. If the Mountaineers were going to beat Furman, they were going to do it by more than 3 points.

Appalachian came out of the gates slowly, falling behind by as many 10 points in the first half, but eventually rallied to take a double digit lead in the second half. Once again, Appalachian allowed a team to close late in the game, but a key turnover by Furman and the ensuing victory dunk by Jamal Trice gave the Mountaineers enough points to prevail. Appalachian won 56-50 and once again, were able to cover. It was the third straight cover for the Mountaineers, and my season record improved to 6-4.

Appalachian State Basketball: Appalachian @ Chattanooga 1/7/2012

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Appalachian put themselves in a good spot on the road to jump to a decent start in league play. The win at Samford was hard fought against a team that can be tough to defened. The Mountaineers were spotted 7.5 points on the road and I felt this was a good play again to pick the Apps. Chattanooga had an excellent record at home and had just come off a come from behind overtime game against Western Carolina a couple night before. I was thinking the Apps could easily win this game depending on their shooting.

Appalachian lef throughtout the game and had a double digit lead late in the second half. The Mountaineers went cold, and allowed the Mocs to tie the game late. Omar Carter had a chance to win the game with the clock winding down, but took an ill-advised shot that created a runout game winning layup for the Mocs. It was a devastating loss, but the Mountaineers did cover the spread. My record on the season improved to 5-4.