Appalachian travels to Wofford on Monday night for another SoCon road game. The Terriers are struggling mightily this season, having lost five straight games, and are currently winless in the SoCon. Wofford notched a impressive win at Alabama in December, but have not won since that game. To think that the same Western Carolina team that Appalachian just throttled on Saturday beat Wofford by fourteen is tough to imagine. Western is terrible, and it is hard to believe that there is a team in the league that they can beat. Wofford has lost its last three games by double digits and has averaged a mere 47.3 points per games in those three games.

Daniella Motley leads Wofford bu averaging a double-double at 10.9 points and 10.2 rebounds per games. Motley has grabbed double digit rebounds in eight games this season. Motley leads the team in minutes played, but is only a 33% free throw shooter. Rachel Brittenham is one of the better point guards in the league at 7.3 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. Brittenham had a career high eleven assists against the Mountaineers last year.

Appalachian is in a four way tie for second place in the SoCon, as Chattanooga, Elon and Samford also only have one loss in conference play. All four second place teams are in action on Monday night, with Chattanooga hosting 3-2 Charleston being the highlight of the four SoCon games. Appalachian, Samford and Elon should  win easily. Davidson plays Furman on Tuesday.

Postgame:

We are not going to pretend we know a lot about this game, since our attention was focused on the men’s game at home tipped off an hour after the women tipped in Spartanburg. For whatever reason, Appalachian has a tough time winning easily in Spartanburg. Several games in the Vincent era have been won in the Sparkle City, but not very easily. Appalachian held and eleven point lead at halftime, but allowed Wofford to come back on tie the game at halftime.

It appears both team traded baskets for much of the second half, as the two teams combined for thirteen tie scores and twelve lead changes for the game. Wofford (5-9, 0-6) hit big buckets at the end of regulation and the first overtime to tie the game and force extra periods.

Appalachian (10-3, 4-1) held huge advantages on the free throw line and on the defensive glass. Appalachian only attempted two more free throws than Wofford, but turned that into ten extra points. The Mountaineers also dominated Wofford on the glass, holding a fourteen rebound advantage, mostly on the defensive end. However, it was 35 Mountaineer turnovers that kept Wofford in the game and forced the Mountaineers to work ten extra minutes to get the win.

Maryah Sydnor led all scorers with 23 points while also adding fourteen rebounds for her first double-double of the season. Sydnor was named SoCon Player of the Week on Tuesday afternoon after leading the conference in scoring the previous week. Katie Mallow added 14 points while Courtney Freeman chipped in twelve points. Anna Freeman was held to single digit scoring for the second time in four games.  Despite a lack of scoring production, Anna added fourteen rebounds, six assists, five blocks and four steals.