BOCA RATON, Fla. - Junior guard
Joi Jones tied a season-high with 18 points, but it wasn't enough as Appalachian State University women's basketball fell, 87-60, to a tough South Dakota squad in the opening round of the FAU Thanksgiving Tournament. App State will square off against Delaware State in the third-place game at 12 p.m. on Saturday in FAU Arena.
South Dakota Starters: #4 Tia Hemiller, #5 Jasmine Trimboli, #15 Kelly Stewart, #33 Caitlin Duffy, #35 Nicole Seekamp
Appalachian State Starters: #2
Farrahn Wood, #10
Joi Jones, #23
KeKe Cooper, #34
Madi Story, #42
Mia MarshallJones scored in doubles for the third time in the first four games after converting on five buckets and shooting 8-for-10 from the free throw line. Bassett-Smith notched a season-high 11 points, including a perfect 5-for-5 from the charity stripe and a tied a career-best with seven boards.
Jasmine Ogunjimi and
Kaila Craven both came off the bench to round out the leading scorers with eight and seven points, respectively. The duo came off the bench to combine for 6-of-8 shooting from the field to lead the bench with 15 points total en route to the reserves scoring 34 of the team's points.
Going up against a squad that came into the game averaging 10 3-pointers per game and shooting 42.1 percent from outside the arc, the Coyotes hit their season mark with 10 treys on a 45.2 shooting clip while shooting 54.1 percent from the field This was key as App State failed to convert on a 3-pointer and shot just 31.7 percent.
Appalachian did out shoot USD at the charity stripe, 26-18,converting on 20 free throws,won the turnover battle 20-18, and held a plus-six advantage in offensive rebounding,15-9. Defensively, Appalachian was able to hold Nicole Seekamp to six points and four assists after the USD guard went into the contest averaging 18 points and 11 assists. Four other players took on the scoring load putting up double figures in the scoring department.
South Dakota jumped out to a 10-2 advantage in the opening quarter, and the lead would balloon to 11, 20-9, with 1:29 left. The Apps fought back with a 9-0 spurt that stretched over into the second quarter. Craven scored the final five points of the first frame that trimmed the lead to six, 20-14.
Coming out in the second quarter, Appalachian scored on a pair of jumpers from Wood and Cooper that pushed the Apps to within one possession, 20-18. The Black and Gold defense forced USD to miss its next five shots and a 3:04 scoring drought during the spark. With the momentum turning to App State's favor, South Dakota stopped the spurt with a trey that began a 22-4 run over the final 8:24 of the half to take a commanding 42-22 lead.
Jones, Craven and Bassett-Smith led the offense with 14 of the team's 22 points going into the locker room.
USD kept the foot on the gas pedal never allowing App State to chip into the lead or threaten to gain any momentum. On multiple occassions, App State would score on back-to-back possessions but the Coyotes scored in flurries to prevent App State from putting together a significant run.
App State shot much better in the second half (44.0-23.7) and was 16-for-19 from the charity stripe. Jones scored 13 of her points in the stanza with Ogunjimi tallying all of her points in the second half as well.
For App State, it was the third opponent in the first four games of the contest that went to the postseason in 2014-15, further proving the difficulty of the non-conference schedule.
Julia Buehler and
Elizabeth Norregaard both saw action in the game. Buehler converted on a pair of free throws in the fourth quarter to score her first points as a Mountaineer.
