LAFAYETTE, La. - App State women's basketball suffered a 48-47 heartbreaking loss to No. 5 seed Little Rock on Tuesday afternoon in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament.
App State ends its season with an 11-19 mark, while Little Rock advances to the next round to face the winner of Georgia Southern and Louisiana.
Lainey Gosnell stepped up on the day with her second double-double of the season, scoring a game-high 18 points on 7-for-10 shooting with a game-best 11 rebounds.
Michaela Porter and
Pre Stanley each scored nine to round out the leading scorers.
App State posted a dominating 47-25 edge on the glass, while the bench outscored Little Rock's, 13-5, and outscored LR 22-18 in the paint.
The difference on the day was turnovers with App tallying a season-high 23 miscues, which led to over half of LR's points with 25. The Trojans only posted seven mistakes.
Defensively, the Apps dominated LR in the first half with the Trojans shooting only 16 percent, helping the Black and Gold take a 27-18 lead into the first half.
Five straight points by Gosnell early in the third period helped App take a 36-24 lead, which stretched to 15 later in the frame that came from an 11-3 run over 5:51 after a second-chance layup by
Haile McDonald to put the score at 40-25.
App State held a 40-27 advantage going into the final frame. However, LR's offense shot 66.7 percent in the fourth quarter (7-38 first three quarters) while the App offense went cold from the floor. The Trojans came back to cut the deficit to a possession before Tori Lasker hit a 3-pointer that gave the fifth-seeded Trojans the 48-47 lead.
Stanley had a chance to give the Black and Gold the lead with three seconds left, but her layup fell short.
Kyra Collier led LR with 14 points and Teal Battle registered 13 points.
App State won seven of its final 12 games highlighted by the 83-80 double-overtime triumph over Coastal Carolina.
