BOONE, N.C. - App State women's basketball sent its seniors off with a 68-49 victory on Senior Day over ULM on Saturday afternoon in the Holmes Center.
App State improves to 10-17 overall and 7-10 in conference play, while ULM falls to 3-25 and 1-15 in the league.
The Mountaineers honored the six seniors of
Nicola Mathews,
Kaila Craven,
Armani Hampton,
Ashley Polacek,
Bayley Plummer and senior manager, Bre Whitman.
Craven started the game and had a 10-second runoff in her honor, as she was medically disqualified last season.
Michaela Porter led the team with career-high 17 points on four field goals and a perfect 7-of-7 from the free-throw line.
Pre Stanley scored an efficient 14 points on 7-for-9 shooting from the field and tied a career-high with five steals, helping the defense force a season-high 23 turnovers.
Ashley Polacek scored eight of her 12 points in the second half. Plummer notched a game-high 11 rebounds with five points, two assists and two steals.
Nicola Mathews got the Apps off to a solid start hitting two of her team-high three, 3-pointers to give the Black and Gold a 6-2 advantage. After the visitors had cut the deficit to one possession, Porter and Plummer scored the final four points to give the Apps a 13-7 lead at the end of the first.
App State turned it up in the second quarter, scoring 28 points on 63.2 percent shooting. The Mountaineers scored 16 of their points in the paint and forced eight miscues. Appalachian then engineered a 20-4 run over a 6:37 span while leading by six, which led to a 41-19 halftime lead.
The Mountaineers held the Warhawks scoreless over 3:58 n during the surge. A trifecta by Porter and back-to-back layups from
Brooke Bigott and Stanley before the half gave the Black and Gold their largest lead at 22 going into the break.
ULM made things interesting, as five of their six field goals came from outside the arc, outscoring the Apps by 13 and slicing the lead to nine, 4-38.
A layup by Jamie Means closed the gap to seven, 47-40, before five straight points from Polacek and Stanley pushed the lead back to double digits, 52-40.
App and ULM traded trifectas with
Lainey Gosnell and Mathews hitting two treys midway through the fourth period, giving Appalachian a 59-46 lead.
The lead never dipped below 14 points in the final 2:08 of the contest, helping App State improve to 10-0 all-time against ULM.
The Apps scored a season-high 27 points off the miscues, while holding a 26-14 edge in points in the paint and 42 points by the bench.
Appalachian clinched a spot in the Sun Belt Tournament and will await next week to see where it will finish.
The Mountaineers have a bye on Thursday before closing out the regular season against Coastal Carolina on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Conway.
