SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Appalachian State women's basketball grinded its way to a 54-51 road win against Wofford on Wednesday evening inside the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium.
App State moves to 2-5 on the season, while earning its first road victory of the campaign. Wofford falls to 3-6 on the year.
Defense, free throw shooting and timely shots highlighted the victory, as Appalachian held Wofford to a season-low 51 points on 31.1 percent shooting. App shot a season-high 80 percent (16-of-20) from the charity stripe, and after shooting just 26.9 percent from the field in the first two quarters, it posted a 50 percent clip from the floor in the second half.
Bayley Plummer and
Lainey Gosnell led four Mountaineers in double figures with 14 points apiece. Plummer posted a stellar outing with a game-high 16 boards for her second straight double-double. The Thomasville native shot 6-of-8 from the field with a pair of steals and blocks. Gosnell went perfect from the line at 6-of-6.
Ashley Polacek scored 12 points while dishing out four assists with a season-high four steals.
Pre Stanley rounded out the leading scorers with 10 points on top of seven boards.
The Mountaineers and Terriers were in a drag out contest throughout the fourth quarter after Wofford had come back from a 15-point deficit in the second quarter.
Wofford had a chance to tie in the final five seconds after Polacek went 1-for-2 at the line, but the clock ran out to before Wofford had a chance to attempt the shot. Appalachian records its 17th straight win over Wofford and the eighth consecutive victory in Spartanburg.
The Terriers dwindled the score to one possession on multiple occasions in the final frame, but App came up with clutch field goals and converted at the line when it needed to. Polacek and Gosnell combined to go 5-of-6 in the final 4:48 of the game at the charity stripe. Stanley hit a jumper in the early goings of the fourth to start a 5-0 run that put Appalachian up 44-38 and drained a big 3-pointer to give the Black and Gold a six-point lead midway in the fourth.
Thanks to lockdown defense and 10 first-quarter points by Gosnell, Appalachian held a 16-8 lead going into the second quarter. Three different Mountaineers scored during a 7-0 start capped off by a trey from Polacek.
A personal 6-0 surge by Plummer stretched the lead to 14, while the lead was at its largest when the score was 15, 25-10, with 5:48 left in the half. Wofford didn't go away as a 10-2 run the rest of the second gave the visitors a 27-20 edge at the break.
Wofford continued to slowly get itself back into the game, and even took its first lead 36-35. Field goals by Gosnell and Lainey pushed Appalachian back in front 39-36 at the end of the third frame, which was a lead App didn't relinquish the rest of the contest.
The Mountaineers will have a long break before traveling to Ann Arbor to face Michigan on Saturday, Dec. 14 at 3:30 p.m.
