BOONE, N.C. -- App State men's basketball scored 12 of the first 14 points of the game and never looked back in a 90-59 Sun Belt victory over Troy on Saturday.
The 31-point margin of victory is the largest ever for the Mountaineers in Sun Belt play. In addition, the 31-point victory is the largest conference margin of victory since a 95-54 win over The Citadel on Jan. 27, 2007.
After leading 12-2, Troy (6-5, 1-1 SBC) pulled within five points at 21-16 with 10:54 left in the opening half. From there, App State (7-4, 1-1 SBC) went on a 15-2 run to push its lead to 38-17, getting back-to-back 3-pointers from
Justin Forrest to cap the run. Forrest drained a trio of free throws in the closing moments of the first half to give the Mountaineers a 50-26 edge at the break.
In the second half, the Trojans pulled within 16 points at 54-38. But the Black and Gold came right back with a 13-2 run to push its lead to 67-40 with 12:34 left to play. The Mountaineers opened as large of a lead as 33 points in the second half en route to its 31-point victory.
Five players reached double figures in scoring for App State.
Forrest paced the Mountaineer offense with a season-high 21 points. He finished 6-of-10 (60.0 percent) from the field and went a scorching 6-of-7 (85.7 percent) from deep, while adding four rebounds, three steals and a pair of assists.
Michael Almonacy tallied his first career App State double-double with 11 points and 10 assists. Almonacy becomes the first Mountaineer to reach double figures in assists since Mike Neal dished out 10 assists on March 2, 2013.
Donovan Gregory had another solid game, finishing with 15 points on 7-of-12 (58.3 percent) shooting and five rebounds.
Adrian Delph drained four 3-pointers to finish with 14 points and five rebounds and
James Lewis Jr. went 6-of-7 (85.7 percent) from the field to finish with 13 points.
In all, the Mountaineers shot a season-best 54.8 percent (34-of-62) from the field and a season-high 57.7 percent (15-of-26) from deep. The 15 made threes reflects a new season-best for the Black and Gold.
App State also forced Troy in 18 turnovers, scoring 20 points off the Trojan miscues. In addition, the Mountaineers dished out a season-high 20 assists.
App State welcomes Georgia Southern to the High Country next weekend for a pair of games. The two teams will meet on Jan. 8Â at 6 p.m. and on Jan. 9 at 4 p.m. Both games will be broadcast on ESPN+ and can be heard on the Appalachian Sports Network from Learfield IMG College.
App State men's basketball would like to thank the Law Offices of Timothy Welborn as its 2020-21 season sponsor.
