LITTLE ROCK, Ark. –
Michael Almonacy scored a season-high 26 points as App State men's basketball posted a 78-66 victory at Little Rock on Wednesday evening.
Almonacy scored 21 of his 26 points in the first half. He knocked down a season-high six 3-pointers, including five in the first half, and added four rebounds and four assists.
Adrian Delph added 18 points and became the 18th player in program history to eclipse the 500-point mark in a single season. He now has 517 points this season, which ranks 17th in program history.
Justin Forrest added 11 points and passed
Ronshad Shabazz (2,067) for second place on the all-time scoring list. Forrest now has 2,078 career points and is just 108 points shy of passing Donald Sims (2,185) as the program's all-time leading scorer.
Donovan Gregory added 10 points, four rebounds and seven assists.
The Mountaineers are now 18-12 on the season and 12-5 in conference play. App State's 12 Sun Belt wins are the most for the program since joining the conference and most since the 2009-10 season, when the Black and Gold won 13 games in the Southern Conference. The win also clinches a bye in the Sun Belt Tournament, which begins next week, for the Mountaineers.
App State used a 9-0 run, capped by five consecutive points from Almonacy, to open an early 12-4 lead. Little Rock (8-17, 3-10 SBC) came right back with eight consecutive points to tie the game at 12-12, but the Mountaineers responded with 11 straight points, getting a trio of 3-pointers from Almonacy, to open a 23-12 edge. The Trojans continued the half of runs with eight unanswered points, before App State scored seven consecutive points to push its lead to 30-20 with 7:02 left in the opening half. The Mountaineers held the lead for the remainder of the stanza and took a 40-32 lead into the half
In the second half, App State scored seven of the first nine points to take a 47-34 edge with 16:31 left. The Trojans came back with five straight to pull within seven, but App State used layups from
RJ Duhart and Delph to push its lead back to 11 points. App State used another 7-0 run later in the half to open a 60-44 advantage with 11:19 remaining. The Trojans pulled within 10 points at 68-58 with 6:05 left, but the Mountaineers never let Little Rock get any closer, pushing their lead to as large as 16 points down the stretch.
App State shot 52.5 percent (32-of-61) from the field and 43.5 percent (10-of-23) from beyond the arc. The Black and Gold also held a 44-34 edge in points in the paint.
Myron Gardner posted a triple-double for Little Rock, finishing with 13 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists.
App State will conclude the regular season on Friday evening at Arkansas State. Tip is set for 8 p.m. EST on ESPN+.
