ELON, N.C. - Appalachian State University men's basketball travels to Elon on Saturday for its final Southern Conference road game of the regular season. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at Alumni Gym.
The Mountaineers (9-13, 5-7 SoCon) seek a third-straight regular-season sweep and sixth-straight win against the Phoenix.
Appalachian downed Elon, 79-71, earlier this season, behind 22 points from Omar Carter, and 12 each from Jeremi Booth, Donald Sims and Andre Williamson.
The Apps played their first overtime game of the season on Wednesday and took an 80-78 decision at UNC Greensboro. Carter was the star of the game with 26 points and 12 rebounds. More importantly, the junior sank the go-ahead free throws in overtime and blocked a jumper at the other end of the floor in the final 10 seconds.
Sims enters Saturday's contest just two points shy of the 2,000-point mark for his career. His 1,998 points rank first in the ASU record book. Entering the season, only 470 players had reached the milestone in NCAA Division I history. Eight more have done so already this season, including CofC's Andrew Goudelock. Following Goudelock and SoCon career scoring leader Stephen Curry (Davidson), Sims would be just the third SoCon player to hit the milestone in the past decade.
Following Saturday's contest, Appalachian hosts its final five Southern Conference matchups at home, beginning with next Thursday's contest against Samford. The 7 p.m. contest is also Celebrate Watauga Night. Click HERE for more information.
Scouting the Phoenix (10-13, 4-8 SoCon)
• Since the last meeting, the Phoenix won a pair of games before dropping its last three.
• Elon is 3-3 in league home games and 7-5 overall at renovated Alumni Gym this season.
• Drew Spradlin leads Elon in scoring at 14.6 points per game. He is also the team's top rebounder with a 4.8 average on the boards.
• Chris Long leads the Phoenix and ranks second in the SoCon with 5.6 assists per game. The guard adds 13.8 points per game as well.
• In Wednesday's 74-58 setback against Western Carolina, Lucas Troutman scored 23 points and hauled in nine boards off the bench to pace Elon.
Series History
• Appalachian holds a 49-41 advantage in the all-time series with Elon, but is just 11-28 on the road against the Phoenix.
• The Mountainees seek a third-straight season sweep against the division rival on Saturday. ASU has won five in a row against Elon.
• ASU's last setback against Elon came on the road by six points in 2007-08.
• Earlier this season, Carter sank 10-of-15 shots for 22 points with seven rebounds and three assists in ASU's 79-71 win at the Holmes Center.
• The Mountaineers shot 52.8 percent from the floor and fended off 10 Elon three-pointers for the eight-point win.
• In seven career games in the series, Sims averages 12.0 points and 2.6 assists per game.
• Williamson has faced Elon five times and averages 6.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. He has also swatted three blocks in the games.
• A win on Saturday would match ASU's second-longest winning streak against the Phoenix. ASU won six-straight from 1965-68 and owned an eight-game winning streak in the series from 1947-51.
