BOONE, N.C. – The App State women's basketball team fell short to Texas State, 67-58, in its first home Sun Belt game of the new year.
"I'll just start by crediting Texas State. I feel like in so many ways they flipped the script, they were a woman down and they had a woman up," said head coach
Angel Elderkin. "They had one of their better players not dressed and then they had a couple key players go for 12 and 15 and score 27 points. That's what it takes to be good and right now my job is to let our team understand that there's a ceiling to our group and there's a floor. When we play to our ceiling we could be pretty good, but when we play to our floor we can lose to anybody on any given night."
For a second consecutive game, Chaé Harris was the Mountaineers' top scorer, netting 16 points. The Sun Belt Player of the Week also pulled down five rebounds and made two blocks. Fellow sophomore
Rylan Moffitt recorded her third double-double of the season, recording a team-high 11 rebounds and 11 points. Senior
Faith Alston also scored 11 points and pulled down seven rebounds. Alston, as well as graduate student
Mariah Frazier and sophomore
Alexis Black each dished out two assists. Black set a career-high in the steals category, recording six on the evening.
App State (7-6, 1-1 SBC) scored 15 second chance points compared to Texas State's five. The Mountaineers also caused 26 Texas State turnovers and scored 15 points off those turnovers in addition to holding the Bobcats to seven offensive rebounds.
The Mountaineers held Texas State to a mere eight points in the first quarter. Layups from Frazier and Black put the Mountaineers on the board, 4-0, within the first minute of play. Harris sank both of her 3-point buckets of the game and accounted for 10 of the Mountaineers' 19 points in the period.
App State faced a scoring drought in the second quarter as Texas State began to chip away at the Mountaineers' lead. Alston drilled a jumper and Moffitt broke away for a fastbreak layup to keep App State ahead, 23-14. Junior
Zada Porter contributed a pair of free throws before the Bobcats found momentum with an 8-0 run. Alston managed to drain a late trey before halftime, with App State holding onto a 28-24 edge.
In the third quarter, the Black and Gold maintained a tight lead.Moffitt netted eight of the Mountaineers' 16 points, six of which she scored in the first five minutes of the period. Texas State narrowed the deficit to one on four occasions before taking a one-point edge (41-40) after a jumper with 1:43 left in the quarter. The Mountaineers answered with a jumper from Alston to retake the lead. Black closed out the quarter with a fastbreak jumper to keep App State a step ahead, 44-41.
Texas State was quick to tie the score at 44 all at the start of the final quarter. Alston landed a jumper in the paint to give the Mountaineers a 46-44 edge, but the Bobcats took a 49-46 lead. The Mountaineers fought back as Frazier made it to the hoop for a layup and made a pair of free throws to give App State a 50-49 edge. Texas State managed to jump ahead to 62-52, and despite a layup from Porter and free throws from Harris, the Bobcats outlasted the Mountaineers, 67-58.
UP NEXT
App State will host South Alabama at 2 p.m. on Saturday in the Holmes Convocation Center. The game will also be available to stream on ESPN+.
