STATESBORO, Ga. - App State women's basketball suffered a 78-70 loss to Georgia Southern in Hanner Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon.
The Apps fall to 9-17 and 6-9 in conference play, while GS improves to 9-17 and 6-9 in the Sun Belt.
After scoring only eight points on Thursday,
Pre Stanley bounced with a game-high 23 points on 7-of-15 shooting with three trifectas and six free throws. The 23 points are the most in a road game this season for the junior.
Ashley Polacek scored 13 points while
Brooke Bigott rounded out the leading scorers with 10 points and dished out four assists.
Bayley Plummer led the team with nine rebounds on top of seven points.
A fourth quarter in which Georgia Southern scored 31 points (47 other three periods) proved to be the difference, shooting over 50 percent from the field with four 3-pointers and went 11-of-13 from the line (4-of-7 rest of the game).
After App State took a two-point lead into the fourth, the Eagles hit back-to-back 3-pointers to take a commanding lead early in the fourth. Trailing 57-51, a layup by
Armani Hampton and back-to-back jumpers from Polacek and Stanley tied up the contest.
GS went up by five until Stanley canned a trey to bring the deficit to one possession, 62-60. However, GS hit five of its seven shot attempts over the final 4:44 of the game. The Apps missed six of 10, leading to the victory for the hosts.
Appalachian came out on an 8-2 run thanks to two treys by Bigott and Stanley in the first 2:03 of the game. The Eagles eventually tied up the game, 12-12, with both teams shooting over 50 percent by the first media timeout.
GS held an 18-14 lead going into the second quarter after its 6-2 spurt to end the frame. The Apps engineered an 8-0 when with the score in Georgia Southern's favor to take a 24-21 advantage after a pair of Plummer free throws.
Neither team held a lead by more than three points over the last 6:21 of the first half. Helping the Black and Gold take a 35-33 lead at the half was a 10-of-10 showing from the free-throw line.
App State stayed in front of the Eagles for the majority of the low-scoring third period. Whenever it looked like the Apps were starting to take control, the Eagles responded by hitting a 3-pointer.
Field goals on consecutive possessions late in the quarter gave by Bigott and Plummer gave the Mountaineers a 47-44 lead. Following a Tatum Barber 3-pointer to tie up the game,
Michaela Porter hit two free throws out of four attempts to give App the 49-47 going into the fourth.
Georgia Southern, who came into the game second in the conference in 3-pointers per game, shot 50 percent from beyond the arc going 9-of-18. The bench also scored 46 points with Barber scoring 18. Alexis Brown scored 16. The duo combined for 34 points 10-of-18 from the floor and hit seven treys.
App State will aim to bounce back when it hosts the Louisiana schools next week. The Apps will face Louisiana on Thursday at 6:30 p.m before hosting ULM on Saturday at 2 p.m.
