Pregame:
Appalachian will begin conference play on Monday night with a game against Georgia Southern, a team that has played Appalachian tough in the Darcie Vincent era. Appalachian won both games last year by double digits, but only averaged 60.5 points points per game in the series. Before last year’s wins, Appalachian dropped five of its previous six to the Eagles.
Georgia Southern is struggling this season with a 1-3 record, their lone win coming over RPI #333 Kent State. The Golden Flashes are 0-6 on the season. Georgia Southern opened their SoCon slate with a twelve point loss to Davidson, who was the media’s preseason favorite to win the conference. The Eagles turned the ball over 27 times in the loss. Unfortunately, the Georgia Southern link for statistics is not working, so we cannot provide a more in depth preview.
The Mountaineers win over Xavier helped them leap frog from 88th to 60th in the latest RPI rankings. Appalachian is the final team in the SoCon to start their conference slate. With that, Appalachian is stuck in the middle of the conference standings. As you can see, Chattanooga, Samford and Davidson are near the top as everyone expected. There have not been any major upsets this season.
SoCon Women’s Basketball | SoCon | Overall | ||||||||||
Team | Record | Home | Away | Record | Pct | Home | Away | |||||
Chattanooga | 2-0 | 2-0 | 0-0 | 6-1 | .857 | 4-0 | 1-1 | |||||
Samford | 1-0 | 1-0 | 0-0 | 4-2 | .667 | 3-1 | 1-1 | |||||
Western Carolina | 1-0 | 1-0 | 0-0 | 3-3 | .500 | 2-2 | 1-1 | |||||
College of Charleston | 1-0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 3-4 | .429 | 1-1 | 2-3 | |||||
Davidson | 1-0 | 1-0 | 0-0 | 2-4 | .333 | 1-0 | 0-3 | |||||
Appalachian State | 1-0 | 1-0 | 0-0 | 6-1 | .857 | 3-0 | 1-1 | |||||
Furman | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 3-3 | .500 | 3-0 | 0-3 | |||||
Elon | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 2-3 | .400 | 2-2 | 0-1 | |||||
UNCG | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1-3 | .250 | 0-1 | 0-2 | |||||
Georgia Southern | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 1-5 | .167 | 1-2 | 0-3 | |||||
Wofford | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 4-3 | .571 | 1-0 | 2-3 |
Postgame:
Appalachian was challenged throughout the game with stingy defense and a Georgia Southern team who substituted relentlessly in the second half, doing whatever it could to slow down the Mountaineer attack. Appalachian scored fifty second half points to earn a blowout win over the Eagles, 79-47. Appalachian played some great defense of its own on Monday evening. Georgia Southern only made one of their twenty-one three points attempts and managed shooting only 31.6% for the game. No Eagle was able to manage double digit scoring. The Mountaineers forced 24 turnovers and allowed only four assists.
Appalachian was able to celebrate a career milestone for Courtney Freeman, who netted her 1,000th point on the free throw line in the second half. Freeman had only scored six points at halftime, but the Mountaineers made a point to get her the ball late in the game. Courtney hit six free throws in the second half and hit six of her ten attempts in the second frame to finish with exactly 1,000 points for her career. Freeman became the 22nd Mountaineer with 1,000 points, following classmate Anna Freeman who scored her 1,000th last season against Longwood. Courtney finished with 24 points and nine rebounds for the game. Maryah Sydnor chipped in 19 points on 8/12 shooting and added six rebounds. Anna Freeman was saddled with foul trouble and only played 28 minutes in the game but managed to score 14 points, grab six boards, assisted on four baskets and swatted three shots. Kelsey Sharkey added six points, eight rebounds, and four steals.
C-Notes: Anna Freeman wound up eight points short of her 1,500th point….Anna needs to average 24.2 points per game for the remainder of the regular season to hit 2,000 career points. Courtney Freeman was named Women’s Basketball Playeer of The Week by the SoCon….The same honor was bestowed on Jay Canty on the men’s side for his efforts against Missouri and Duquesne…Men’s Basketball opens SoCon play on Saturday at Western Carolina….The Women will enjoy a 15 day layoff for exams before travelling to ETSU on Dec 18th.