BOONE, N.C. – Continuing a stretch of seven consecutive games in the state of North Carolina, the App State Mountaineers (2-2) welcome the William & Mary Tribe (3-4) to the Holmes Convocation Center on Sunday. The matchup marks the first meeting between the two teams since 1977 and the Tribe's first visit to Boone since 1976. Tipoff is slated for 1 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+.
Head coach
Dustin Kerns sits at 99 wins as App State's head coach entering Sunday. If he gets one more win in his next three games, he will become the third-fastest Mountaineer head coach to reach 100 career wins, passing App State coaching legends Bobby Cremins and Bob Light who each needed 170 games to reach 100 wins.
App State has now won 17 of its last 18 games at the Holmes Center. Of those 17 wins, 11 have come by double digits. The Mountaineers are outscoring their opponents by an average of 19 points a game in their last 18 contests at the Holmes Center.
Sunday's contest is the second of a seven-game stretch in which the Mountaineers will play in the state of North Carolina. As part of that stretch, App State will travel to Wilmington for a Feast Week Tournament at UNCW and a neutral site bout against High point in Greensboro on Dec. 14. The next time the Mountaineers will leave North Carolina is Dec. 18 when they kick off Sun Belt Conference play at Louisiana.
The Matchup
- Who: App State vs. William & Mary
- Where: Holmes Convocation Center // Boone, N.C.
- When: Sunday, Nov. 24 // 1 p.m.
Tune In
- Watch: ESPN+ | Corey Hodges (PxP), John Reisterer (Color)
- Listen: FLAGSHIP 97.3 (North Wilkesboro), 96.3 (Winston-Salem/Greensboro), 1350/96.1 (Asheville), 1250/103.9 (Marion), 790/93.7 (Johnson City) | Matt Present (PxP)
- Live Stats: appstatesports.com
Last Time Out
The Mountaineers tallied a 65-53 win against the Queens Royals last Wednesday, using a 14-2 run late in the first half to take control of the contest. App State led by as much as 16 points.
CJ Huntley and
Myles Tate combined for 46 of App State's 65 points in the game. In what was his 126th game in a Mountaineer uniform, Huntley scored more points than he ever has before, tallying a career-best 27 on 10-17 shooting. It was his third career 20-point game. Tate stuffed the stat sheet in the win, accounting for 19 points, a season-best eight rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Defense was the story of the game for the Mountaineers as Coach Kerns' squad held an up-tempo Royal offense to just 32 percent from the field and a season-worst 53 points. The Royals came into the game having made at least eight threes in every game they had played this season, but the Black and Gold kept Queens to just six made threes on 37 attempts (16.2%).
Scouting the Mountaineers
App State has turned the Holmes Center into one of the Sun Belt's toughest venues under Kerns. Not only have the Mountaineers won 17 of their last 18 games at home, they are scoring 82.5 points a game since the start of last season.
A large part of the Mountaineers' success over the last three years has been keeping opponents from getting hot from the field. That is no different this year as App State boasts the second-best field-goal percentage defense in the Sun Belt Conference as of Saturday at 38 percent. The Mountaineers have finished in the top 20 nationwide in that category each of the past two seasons.
Additionally, App State has been stellar at defending the three over the past two seasons, going 24-6 when keeping its opponent under 40 percent from the long line. Through four games this season, the Mountaineers are keeping opponents to just 25 percent from three, which is the 18th-best mark in the country as of Saturday.
On the offensive end, the Mountaineers see four people who average at least eight points a game in Huntley, Tate,
Jackson Threadgill and
Michael Marcus Jr. Huntley and Tate both enter Sunday in the top 25 in the Sun Belt Conference in scoring, averaging 16 and 12 points respectively. Marcus has been a bright spot thus far in his first season as he leads the team in plus/minus, while Threadgill has played in the second-most minutes on the team.
Scouting the Tribe
The Tribe are 3-4 on the season, having posted wins against Radford, Norfolk State and Sun Belt East rival Georgia Southern this season. William & Mary enters Sunday's game in Boone after falling to NC State 61-84 on Friday in Raleigh.
William & Mary prides itself on shooting and making 3-pointers as they come to the Holmes Center having attempted the eighth-most threes in the NCAA. Additionally, the Tribe make 11 threes a game, which is the 17th-best clip in the country as of Saturday.
Five players enter Sunday's contest averaging at least seven points a game for the Tribe. Noah Collier paces William & Mary's high-powered offense, scoring 13 points a game, while Kyle Pulliam and Gabe Dorsey also average double digits for head coach Brian Earl.
Series History
App State and William & Mary will meet for the seventh time on Sunday. The Mountaineers and Tribe were Southern Conference foes for five seasons as when App State joined the SoCon in 1972, William & Mary was also a member until 1977. The Tribe hold the advantage in the all-time series at 5-1, but the two teams haven't squared off in nearly 48 years.
William & Mary plays in the Coastal Athletic Conference, making it the first of two opponents from the CAA that App State will play this season (UNCW). Sunday's game also marks the first of five contests against programs from Virginia this season.
Kerns and Earl have never met one another and no player on the active roster has seen the floor against the Tribe.
Next Up
Following Sunday's contest, the Mountaineers will trek to Wilmington, N.C., for the Live Oak Bank Holiday Classic, hosted by the UNCW Seahawks. App State will open play against the 2023-24 Conference USA regular-season champion Sam Houston Bearkats on Thursday at Trask Coliseum. Thursday's action is set to kick off at 4 p.m. and can be streamed on Flo Sports College.
The 2024-25 men's basketball season is presented by Foscoe Companies.
