STATESBORO, Ga. – App State led Georgia Southern for 28 minutes, including most of overtime, but the Mountaineers fell to the Eagles 82-80 Thursday night in a wild finish between the two longtime rivals.
Alexia Allesch connected on three 3-pointers in overtime – good for nine of her career-high 21 points – with her third triple giving App State a 78-76 lead with 1:32 left. Georgia Southern's Maya Banks countered with a layup to tie the game at 78-78.
After trading missed 3-pointers,
Michaela Porter drew a foul and knocked down both of her free throws to again put the Mountaineers ahead by two with 30 seconds left. Another Banks layup tied the game again at 80-80 with 14 seconds left. An errant App State inbounds pass then led to the go-ahead Eagle score on a putback by Simone James.
App State (11-10, 5-3 SBC) had one more shot at the win in the final four seconds. A perfectly executed inbounds play from
Dane Bertolina to
Faith Alston to
Janay Sanders to a wide-open Porter on the wing resulted in a clean look from three that rattled in and out as the final buzzer sounded.
Allesch notched her eighth double-double of the year with 21 points (including four 3-pointers) and 13 rebounds, while Porter also registered a double-double with 12 points and 10 boards.
Sanders scored 15 on 6-of-8 shooting, and
Emily Carver chipped in 13 (with four 3-pointers of her own).
The Mountaineers led by as many as nine points in the third quarter and held a 65-59 advantage with 2:11 left in regulation before Georgia Southern (14-7, 5-4 SBC) mounted its homecourt comeback.
Terren Ward scored the Eagles' final 13 points in regulation to almost single-handedly send the game to overtime. She finished with a game-high and career-high 32 points.
App State will close out its four-game road swing on Saturday at Georgia State (2 p.m., ESPN+).
