BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State University women's basketball (10-8, 4-3 SBC) fell to a hot-shooting Little Rock (11-8, 7-1 SBC) team, 74-59, on Saturday afternoon inside the Holmes Center.
Madi Story scored 20 points for the third straight game, shooting 8-of-15 from the field en route to a team-high 20 points (16 in the second half).
Ashley Polacek rounded out the leading scorers with 12 points on 5-for-10 shooting from the floor. The duo combined to shoot 13-of-25 from the field.
Bayley Plummer snagged a game-high 11 rebounds while dishing out a team-best three assists.Â
A slow start and a scorching first half on offense by the visitors doomed the Mountaineers. LR came into the contest shooting 40 percent from the field but shot 57.6 percent from the floor on Saturday.Â
Little Rock jumped out to an early 19-6 lead in the first 6:59 of the contest. Appalachian responded in the final minutes of the opening quarter, putting together a 10-4 run to cut the deficit to seven, 23-16. Plummer started the surge with a layup before Polacek hit a 3-pointer that brought the gap to single digits, 18-11.
Brooke Bigott hit a layup and then
Nicola Mathews found
Lainey Gosnell for a wide-open 3-pointer before the buzzer.Â
App carried some momentum into the second quarter, but scored just eight points and shot 18.2 percent from the field in the period. LR scored 20 points and shot 69.4 percent from the field to take a 43-24 lead into halftime.
Appalachian played better in the second half, posting a 35-31 edge in the third and fourth quarters. The Black and Gold shot 50 percent in the second half after shooting just 32.1 percent in the first stanza. The Mountaineers went 9-of-13 in the fourth quarter to outscore LR, 22-14.Â
Despite the loss, Appalachian is 8-2 in the first 10 games at home, which is the best 10-game start at the Holmes Center since 2012-13 when that team started 9-1. App State will head on the road to face Louisiana and UL Monroe next weekend. The Apps face the Ragin' Cajuns on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. (ET).Â
