CONWAY, S.C. – Junior
Ronshad Shabazz (Raleigh, N.C./Huntington Prep) scored his 500
th point of the season as the Appalachian State men's basketball team posted an 81-66 road victory at Coastal Carolina on Saturday.
Shabazz registered his milestone point on a free throw at the 4:05 mark of the second half. It marks the 21
st time in program history that a player has reached 500 points in a season. In addition, he joins Donald Sims, D.J. Thompson, Dave Abernathy and Don King as the only players to score 500 or more points in two separate seasons (scored 502 points last season). He would finish the contest with 19 points, three rebounds and a career-high tying three steals.
Off the bench, sophomore
O'Showen Williams (Macon, Ga./Stratford Academy) finished with a career-high 20 points on 5-of-9 (55.6 percent) shooting from the field, a 3-of-4 (75.0 percent) mark on three-pointers and a 7-of-8 (87.5 percent) clip on free throws. Sophomore
Hunter Seacat (Mooresville, N.C./Lake Norman) added a career-high nine points on a perfect 4-of-4 shooting, to go along with four rebounds.
Senior
Griffin Kinney (Delaware, Ohio/Fork Union Military Academy) chipped in with 14 points and freshman
Justin Forrest (Decatur, Ga./Greenforest McCalep Christian Academy) finished with nine points, four rebounds and two assists.
In the first half, the Mountaineers (11-15, 6-7 SBC) built a 23-15 lead, only to see Coastal Carolina (11-15, 5-8 SBC) answer with a 9-1 run to tie the game at 24-24 with 5:31 left in the first half. The Chanticleers took a 33-32 lead into the break.
In the second half, the Black and Gold would hang around and went on a 7-0 spurt to open a 52-46 lead with 13:00 left in the game.
App State continued to expand its lead and a basket by Shabazz with 6:42 remaining pushed the Apps lead to double digits at 64-53.
Coastal Carolina would pull to within six points, but a pair of free throws from Kinney extended the Black and Gold lead back to 10 points at 71-61 with 3:33 to play.
From there, the Mountaineers would use a late 10-0 run to put the game away.
In all, App State outscored Coastal Carolina 49-33 in the second half.
Appalachian finished 26-of-55 (47.3 percent) from the field, while the Chanticleers shot 45.1 percent (23-of-51).
App State also forced Coastal Carolina into 19 turnovers.
The Mountaineers will return to the Holmes Center for two games in the upcoming week. The Black and Gold will host South Alabama on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and Troy on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Tickets are still available for all remaining Appalachian State men's and women's home basketball games. Appalachian State basketball single game tickets can be purchased online by clicking
here, by phone at
(828) 262-2079 or in person at the Appalachian State athletics ticket office, located at the Holmes Center (Monday - Friday; 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.).
