CONWAY, S.C. - App State women's basketball made it known its ready for a March Madness run, as the Mountaineers stunned Coastal Carolina in a thrilling 83-80 double-overtime win on Saturday afternoon at the HTC Center.
The Mountaineers will now await their Sun Belt Tournament opponent later this evening.
App State ends the regular season with an 11-18 mark and an 8-10 record in the league. The Apps snap Coastal Carolina's 10-game win streak and hand the Chanticleers just their second loss at home. CCU came in with a 25-3 mark, 15-2 league record, a No. 9 ranking in the CollegeInsider Mid-Major Top 25 and received votes in the coaches poll.
Pre Stanley led four Mountaineers in double figures, tying a career-high with 28 points on 10-of-25 shooting from the floor.
Lainey Gosnell poured in 21 points with seven boards. The junior hit five of her seven field goals from outside the arc.
Ashley Polacek scored 11 points and dished out five assists, while
Michaela Porter tallied 11 off the bench. Porter led the bench attack, as the Black and Gold outscored CCU's reserves, 16-6.
Bayley Plummer grabbed a game-high 21 rebounds for her ninth-career outing with at least 20 off the glass.
With the scored tied 80-80,
Maya Calder stepped up off the bench to grab her miss and put it back up for the layup to give the Apps an 82-80 lead with 1:04 left in the game.
Appalachian forced two turnovers before
Nicola Mathews went 1-2 at the line to put pressure on CCU to tie the game with a 3-pointer. Torrie Cash's attempt at the buzzer was short, giving Appalachian its first win in Conway. App State held the hosts scoreless over the last 2:02 of the contest and forced three miscues.
In the first overtime, Stanley tied up the game with 23 seconds left just before the Apps stopped the Chanticleers on the other end to force an extra five minutes. The Apps scored six of the final nine points after Coastal took an early 73-70 lead.
The Black and Gold took a lead by as much as 10, 56-46, after Gosnell scored five straight points with 6:53 left in regulation. However, Coastal capped off a comeback when D.J. Williams converted a three-point play with 13 seconds left to send the game into overtime.
Coastal Carolina never had a lead by more than five points, which came in the first quarter, 15-10. Back-to-back trifectas by Gosnell and a jumper from Stanley led an 8-2 charge to give the Mountaineers an 18-17 advantage at the end of the first.
Neither team led by more than four points in the second period, while Porter's buzzer-beating 3-pointer pushed the Apps to a 33-32 favor going into the break.
The Chanticleers went on a 6-2 spurt to take a 42-38 lead midway through the third period. Appalachian responded with a 10-2 run of its own started thanks to a 4-for-6 stretch to push the lead back to App, 48-44, going into a thrilling final 20 minutes of basketball.
App State tied a season-high in points and its the highest offensive output on the road. The 52 rebounds are also a season-best.
D.J. Williams scored 38 points with 12 boards. The senior shot 13-for-31 from the field, but the rest of the team scored 42 and shot only 14-of-52.
