CLEMSON, S.C. – The App State women's basketball team (6-3) fell short to Clemson, 78-59, on the road on Sunday, despite matching the Tigers at 30-all at the half.
"We will learn a lot from this game today," said head coach
Alaura Sharp. "We did a lot of things right in the first half and stayed in striking distance. Defensively we started sending them to the free throw line and letting them get really deep off the dribble. It's good to learn where we are at defensively and offensively against a good physical team. We fortunately have some time to clean things up and grow from this before conference play."
Senior
Emma Smith and sophomore
Jayden McBride matched with 13 points apiece, followed by junior
Daisia Mitchell and senior
Emily Hege, who netted 11 points apiece. The quartet combined for 48 of App State's points on the afternoon. Hege and McBride combined for four of App State's five 3-point buckets, each draining two. Smith and freshman
Addie Biel were the Mountaineers' top rebounders, both grabbing five boards. The Mountaineers held the Tigers to two offensive rebounds.
Within the first 0:35 seconds of play, Hege drilled a 3-point bucket to put the Mountaineers on the board. With a layup and a freebie, McBride extended App State's lead to 6-0. The Tigers went on the prowl with a 12-1 scoring run to edge ahead. The Mountaineers answered with a 9-0 run of their own that featured a layup from senior
Jada Burton, a jumper and 3-point bucket from Smith, and a layup from Hege to push ahead, 16-12. Clemson cut the deficit to one with a 3-pointer, but with 0:04 left in the quarter, Hege connected with senior
Elena Pericic, who made a layup to keep App State up 18-15, at the close of the quarter. The Mountaineers shot 66.7% from beyond the arc over the course of the period.
Smith fired off a jumper to open the second period before Clemson managed to push ahead, 25-20. Late in the quarter, Biel broke the Mountaineers' scoring drought with back-to-back trips to the hoop, which marked the start of an 8-0 run for the Black and Gold. A layup in the paint from Smith broke a 28-all tie, but Clemson managed to knot the score at 30-30 to close the first half.
Early in the third quarter, junior
Daisia Mitchell tied things up at 32-all with a layup, assisted by Hege. Over the course of the game, the Mountaineers and Tigers knotted the score thrice and traded the lead on five occasions until the Tigers managed to edge ahead, 36-32, in the third period. Mitchell and Smith went to work and were responsible for all 11 of App State's points in the quarter. The pair brought the Mountaineers back within two of Clemson's lead (43-41) with a jumper and layup from Mitchell and freebies and a layup from Smith. Clemson pushed away with a late 6-0 run to close the period with an eight-point lead.
As the Mountaineers faced a scoring drought in the fourth quarter, the Tigers found momentum to jump ahead, 60-43. Mitchell broke the Black and Gold's drought with a trip to the hoop. Mitchell and McBride combined for 12 of App State's 18 points in the quarter. Despite the Mountaineers' efforts to chip away at the deficit, which included 3-point buckets from McBride and Hege, as well as a three-point play from freshman
Riley Stoker, App State fell short, 78-59.
Up Next
The Mountaineers remain on the road as they open Sun Belt play against Marshall and Georgia Southern. On Dec. 17, App State will take on Marshall at 11 a.m. in Huntington, WVa. The Mountaineers will then travel to Statesboro, Ga. for a 1 p.m. clash with Georgia Southern on Dec. 20. Both games will be available to stream on ESPN+.
