Mountaineers Fall 89-77 at UT Arlington

ARLINGTON, Tex. -- The Appalachian State men's basketball team came up on the short end of a 89-77 contest at Texas Arlington on Thursday evening.

Junior Ronshad Shabazz (Raleigh, N.C./Huntington Prep) paced the Mountaineers (9-15, 4-7 SBC) with a team-high 31 points, on a season-best 12 made field goals, to go along with three assists and a career-high tying three steals. His scoring total was one shy of tying his season-high scoring output of 32 points, set on November 16 against Iowa State. This marks the fourth time in his career that he has scored 30 or more points.

Senior Griffin Kinney (Delaware, Ohio/Fork Union Military Academy) added 13 points and eight rebounds. Freshman Justin Forrest (Decatur, Ga./Greenforest McCalep Christian Academy) reached double figures for the sixth straight game, tallying 11 points, three assists and two steals. 

Isaac Johnson (Charlotte, N.C./Providence Day) had six points, a team-high nine rebounds and three assists, while sophomore O'Showen Williams (Macon, Ga./Stratford Academy) tallied nine points in a reserve role.

Erick Neal finished with a game-high 38 points and six assists for the Mavericks (14-10, 5-6 SBC). Nathan Hawkins chipped in with 19 points and Kevin Hervey notched a double-double with 18 points and a game-high 14 rebounds.

After the Mavericks jumped out to an early 7-2 lead, the Mountaineers answered with a 15-2 run to open a 17-9 edge with 14:18 remaining in the opening half.
 
The Black and Gold would expand its lead to 10 points at 27-17, before UT Arlington responded with eight straight points, to cut the lead to 27-25 with just over seven minutes left in the first half. App State held a 39-35 edge at the break.
 
In the second half, Appalachian would build as large of a lead as seven points, only to see UTA use a 7-0 spurt to take a 58-57 lead with 8:10 remaining in the game.
 
UT Arlington would expand its lead to 67-62, but Shabazz answered with a three-pointer to bring the Mountaineers within two points at 67-65 with 4:47 to play.
 
Leading by two, the Mavericks would score six consecutive points to open up a 73-65 edge with 1:48 to play. The Mountaineers would get a free throw from Williams on their next possession to trim the deficit to seven points.
 
From there, UTA would shoot 16-of-18 from the free throw line down the stretch to seal the victory.

The Mountaineers went 28-of-70 (40.0 percent) from the field and 13-of-16 (81.3 percent) at the charity stripe. The Mavericks finished 25-of-49 (51.0 percent) in shooting and went 29-of-38 (76.3 percent) on free throws.
 
App State will continue its two-game road swing through Texas on Saturday by taking on Texas State. Tip is set for 5:30 p.m. EST.