PENSACOLA, Fla. – For the second straight year, App State and Georgia State played a hard-fought Sun Belt Tournament battle, and this time the Panthers came out on top 71-66 in Sunday night's semifinal matchup.
Georgia State (17-10) advances to face Louisiana in Monday's championship game, while App State (19-14) will wait to find out its postseason chances in the coming days.
In a game that was a rematch of last year's championship game – that the Mountaineers won 80-73 – App State rallied from as many as 13 points down in the second half to make it a one-possession game with 2:11 left.
After a hard foul on
Justin Forrest at the 2:11 mark that caused him to miss the rest of the game,
RJ Duhart knocked down a one-and-one at the free-throw line to bring the deficit to 59-57.
Georgia State' Corey Allen scored the game's next seven points – of his 29 total – to make a Mountaineer comeback out of reach with 35 seconds left.
Adrian Delph led App State with 25 points and made five of the team's 13 total 3-pointers that tied a season high.
Michael Almonacy added 14 points, and Duhart contributed seven points, nine rebounds and three blocks.
The game started with numerous back-and-forth swings and 13 lead changes before the Panthers closed the first half on an 11-0 run.
Down 38-29 at the half, App State nearly achieved one of its patented comebacks (it is tied for third in the country in the number of halftime deficits overcome in the last three years) when a 12-2 run cut the deficit to two at 57-55 with 6:03 left.
Foul trouble plagued the Mountaineers on Sunday.
Donovan Gregory got his third foul within the first minute of the second half and his fourth at the 3:47 mark. Delph was called for his third foul at 10:13 and his fourth at 1:43.
App State's 19 wins are its most since going 24-13 in 2009-10 as a member of the Southern Conference. The Mountaineers have strung together three straight winning seasons for the first time since 1997-2000.
