BOONE, N.C. – The App State men's basketball team's stellar defense helped it close out its season-long four-game homestand with a commanding 59-43 win over the ULM Warhawks on Friday at the Holmes Center. App State held ULM to just 13 made field goals and 43 points in the win. ULM's 13 field goals mark the fewest an App State team has allowed to a Division I opponent in the
Dustin Kerns era.
App State (13-9, 6-4 SBC) took control of the game near the end of the first half and into the second half by embarking on an extended 29-8 run, which helped turn a four-point deficit into a 17-point lead. From the time ULM (3-18, 0-9 SBC) scored its 16th point of the game at the 12:24 mark of the first half, the Mountaineers held ULM to just eight points over 20 minutes of game time. App State's smothering defense forced the Warhawks to miss 27 of their 30 field-goal attempts during this stretch.
It wasn't pretty on offense for the Mountaineers, but they did win the battle in the paint by 18 on Friday against ULM. Momentum shifted in favor of App State when it turned to
Luke Wilson and
Michael Marcus Jr. down low, which helped spark an 8-0 App State run to close the first half. Wilson accounted for seven points during App State's extended 29-8 run.
Additionally, App State was physical on the glass for the second straight contest, winning the rebound battle by 15 for the second straight game. Both Wilson and Marcus Jr. tallied double-doubles, with Marcus Jr. posting 14 points and 14 rebounds and Wilson notching 14 points and 12 rebounds. App State's 56 rebounds against the Warhawks mark its most against a Sun Belt team in the Kerns era.
How it Happened
The Mountaineers started strong in their second game in 24 hours by scoring each of the game's first 10 points to race ahead to a 10-0 lead through three minutes. Wilson scored the game's first points with a thunderous dunk.
Kasen Jennings followed Wilson's dunk with a dunk of his own after picking ULM's pocket, and Marcus Jr. capped off the run by throwing down a furious two-handed slam on a fast-break chance.
After calling a timeout, ULM gathered itself and switched to a zone defense, which helped stymy the Mountaineers over the next several minutes. This helped the Warhawks work their way back into the game and take a four-point lead with a 14-0 run of their own. App State's offense against ULM's zone struggled, as it missed each of its next nine shots during ULM's run.
Chad Moodie ended the scoring drought for App State with a pair of free throws, but ULM answered with a score right before the under-12 media timeout to go back on top by four. After a nearly two-minute scoring drought, Wilson muscled his way into the paint for an and-one chance, and a 3-pointer by Marcus Jr. sent App State back ahead by two points by the 7:39 mark of the first half.
App State pushed its lead out to four points after a driving layup by Marcus Jr. fell, but four straight points by the Warhawks tied the score at 20 with just under four minutes to play. Then, App State began to show its might and took a lead it would never relinquish for the rest of the game.
Wilson tipped off an 8-0 run to close the half with another layup through contact, and
Jalen Tot connected on his second 3-pointer of the game to make it a six-point game. App State forced back-to-back ULM misses, and Marcus Jr. capped off the half by hitting a layup with 44 seconds left to play in the half, which sent the Mountaineers to the locker room with an eight-point advantage.
The Mountaineers quickly extended their lead to double digits on their first possession of the second half after Jennings knifed his way into the paint. Wilson followed by throwing down an alley-oop slam off an
Alonzo Dodd feed, before ULM scored its first points of the half to make it a 10-point game by the first media timeout of the second half.
After the break, App State embarked on another run, scoring nine of the next 11 points to soar ahead by 17 by the under-12 timeout. Wilson started it yet again with a layup before Tot splashed his third three of the contest. Then,
Eren Banks got into the lane after a Warhawk miss, which forced a ULM timeout after App State had taken complete control of the game.
Another layup by Banks preceded a Marcus Jr. layup, which sent the Mountaineers ahead by a game-high 21 points. Now trailing by its largest deficit of the game, the Warhawks worked to cut it to a 13-point game by the 7:29 mark of the second half after they posted a 9-2 run. App State's lead eventually shrank to 12 after a pair of MJ Russell free throws, but Wilson steadied the ship and ended the run with a layup to push App State's lead back to 14 with just over six minutes to play.
Marcus Jr.'s second 3-pointer of the game dropped through at the 5:01 mark of the final half to propel App State back ahead by 16 points, and App State held onto its double-digit advantage for the duration of the game. A pretty euro-step layup by Banks and a fourth 3-pointer from Tot put the icing on the cake of a commanding 16-point win. This closed out a 3-1 homestand for App State.
Top Performers
Marcus Jr. and Wilson paced App State's offense on Friday, as both scored a team-best 14 points and tallied a double-double. Marcus Jr. barely edged out Wilson for the team lead in rebounding with 14, but the two combined for 26 rebounds, with 10 of them coming on the offensive end. Tot followed up his 21-point outing on Thursday by scoring 12 points on four 3-pointers, his eighth straight game with at least three makes from deep.
Up Next
App State will hit the road for its next two games, while also continuing its five-game stretch against teams from Sun Belt West schools by visiting the Southern Miss Golden Eagles in Hattiesburg, Miss. on Thursday. Tip off is slated for 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT), and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
