Appalachian State Basketball: Appalachian vs. Chattanooga 2/15/2012 Postgame

Appalachian played a very smart game and rolled to an easier than it appears nine point win over Chattanooga. Mike Neal had a career high with 23 points, while Isaac Butts chipped in six points and grabbed a season high 16 rebounds. As big as the win was, it was almost equally important the losses Elon and Samford suffered on Wednesday Night. Appalachian gained a full game on the standings on both teams and really tightened up the race for the second seed in the conference tournament. Listed below are the teams records and remaining conference games.

UNCG         10-5   @GSU, Woff, @Elon  Clinched top 2 seed

Elon             8-7     WCU, @Dav, UNCG

Samford       7-8     Furman, @WCU, @UTC

App St          7-9     @Cit, @WCU

Obviously, Appalachian needs to get to 9-9 in conference play. The Mountaineers cannot afford another conference loss, because Elon already has 8 wins. Elon’s chances of getting to 9-9 are pretty high with a home game against Western Carolina, but getting a tenth conference win is unlikely with games at Davidson and home to UNCG. Samford will probably get a 8th win among their remaining games, but a lengthy road trip on the final weekend of the season could create trouble. Appalachian has the easiest remaining schedule of the three teams still fighting for a bye. If there were a three way tiebreaker, Appalachian would lose, but if Appalachian tied with either Samford or Elon, the Mountaineers would win and get the bye in both scenarios. Unfortunately, Appalachian does not control its own destiny as this point in time and will have to scoreboard watch this Saturday to know their fate.

Appalachian State Basketball: Appalachian vs. Winthrop 2/18/2012

2/16/2012

I would be surprised if there was a line for this game at all. Winthrop has only been lined three times this season and they are 1-2 against the spread. They have had almost their entire schedule either being a PK or NL. However, if there is one, I would expect Appalachian to be favored by close to 10 points.

2/19/2012

For the first time all season we had some big movements to the line for the Winthrop game. The game opened with the Mountaineers being favored by 6 points. Two hours later, which was about an hour before tipoff, the line moved on some sites to as low 4 points. I liked the spread of six, and still felt the same way when the line droppped. It was obvious early in the game that Winthrop could not contain Ike Butts, who scored 15 points and snagged 15 rebounds. Winthrop was long and lean and that frusturated the Mountaineers into some second half mistakes and kept the game fairly close down the stretch. Appalachian led by as many as 16 points in the first half, but allowed Winthrop to take a two point lead in the second frame. Appalachian eventually won 76-64, so the spread did not come into play. My record on the season improved to 10-12 with two games remaining in the regular season.