BOONE, N.C.-- App State men's basketball trimmed an 11-point second half deficit to just one, but fell 67-61 to Troy in the Holmes Convocation Center on Thursday evening.
App State (16-12, 10-5 SBC) held a 39-37 edge at halftime, but Troy (18-8, 9-4 SBC) opened the half on a 15-2 run to open a 52-41 edge with 11:52 to play. App State answered with five straight points to pull within six and later pulled within four at 54-50 with 7:11 left to play, on a basket by
Donovan Gregory.
Trailing by seven, the Mountaineers used a 6-0 run, capped by another Gregory basket, to pull with 57-56 with 5:11 to play. The teams exchanged baskets, before the Trojans scored five straight points to push their lead to 64-58 with 47 seconds left. App State countered with a 3-pointer from
Adrian Delph to trim its deficit to three, but Troy hit three free throws in the final seconds to close out the game.
In the first half, App State opened an 18-14 lead on a layup from
James Lewis Jr. Troy answered with a three, but the Mountaineers scored the next four points to build a 22-17 advantage with 8:50 remaining in the opening half. Troy responded with a 8-0 run to take a three point lead, but App State came right back with a 9-0 run to take a 31-25 lead. Troy battled back to tie the score at 35-35, but the Mountaineers scored four of the final six points of the half to take the two point lead into the break.
Gregory finished with 17 points on 8-of-15 (53.3 percent) shooting, six rebounds, five assists and three steals. Delph added 17 points and a career-high tying four steals.
CJ Huntley hit three 3-pointers to finish with 11 points.
RJ Duhart had six points off the bench and Lewis Jr. pulled down a team-best nine rebounds, four of which were offensive.
The Mountaineers forced the Trojans into 15 turnovers, scoring 19 points off the miscues. The Black and Gold also held a 32-18 edge in points in the paint.
The Mountaineers play next on Saturday, hosting South Alabama in their regular season home finale on Senior Day. The game will be a doubleheader with the women's program and will tip at approximately 4:30 p.m. on ESPN+. One ticket is valid for both games and can be purchased by
clicking here. Adam Church will also perform a postgame concert and a ticket to the game is required to attend.
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