PENSACOLA, Fla. – Paced by a season-high 20 points from
Justin Forrest, App State led from start to finish in a 73-60 win over Georgia Southern on Saturday to advance to Sunday's semifinals at the 2022 Hercules Tires Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball Championship.
Last year's tournament champions won their fifth straight game in Pensacola, as Forrest led a quartet of Mountaineers in double figures.
Donovan Gregory scored 17 points and pulled down nine rebounds, while
Adrian Delph added 13 points and
Michael Almonacy chipped in 11.
"Great team win against a good team," said head coach
Dustin Kerns. "As we've already seen in this tournament, every game is really tough. I'm proud of our guys. We led for 40 minutes, and anytime you do that, certainly you're pleased."
No. 2 seed App State will face No. 3 seed Georgia State in the semifinal round with a scheduled 8:30 p.m. ET tipoff Saturday. The Mountaineers beat the Panthers 80-73 in the championship game a year ago to earn their first NCAA Tournament berth in 21 years. The teams split the home-and-away regular season series this year.
It was a fast start for App State (19-13), which after receiving a first-round bye and being slotted in the late evening game, was the last team to see the court in this year's tournament. The Black and Gold put 10 points on the board and forced three Georgia Southern missed shots and four turnovers before the Eagles notched their first score.
The closest Georgia Southern (13-16) could cut its deficit the rest of the way was six points at the 13:07 mark of the second half.
App State shot 44.2 percent from the floor (23-of-52), while limiting Georgia Southern to 34.8 percent (23-of-66). Forrest made five of the Mountaineers' seven 3-pointers, also a season high for the fifth-year senior who now has 2,113 career points (72 shy of Donald Sims' school record).
Delph was held to just three made baskets, but contributed with 13 total points thanks to a 7-for-8 night from the free-throw line. The Mountaineers made 20 of 29 tries from the charity stripe – a season high for both makes and attempts.
The Mountaineers were able to win comfortably despite C.J. Huntley being injured after only seven minutes of action and not returning to the game.
App State won its third game of the year against its longtime rival, including a 70-62 victory in Statesboro and a 65-61 triumph in Boone.
In winning its 19th game of the season, App State has its most victories in the Kerns Era and its most since a 24-13 campaign in 2009-10 as a member of the Southern Conference.
