HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Fresh off a week that saw games reshuffled due to weather, the App State men's basketball team (13-9, 6-4 SBC) will look to extend its winning streak to three games with a road matchup against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles (11-11, 5-5 SBC) on Thursday. Tip off from Reed Green Coliseum is slated for 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT), and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
App State is in the midst of a five-game stretch against teams from Sun Belt West schools (hosted Louisiana and ULM last week in Boone). App State will play on the road this week against Southern Miss and Troy (Saturday), before capping off the five-game swing with a home game against South Alabama next Wednesday.
The Mountaineers enter Thursday's game against Southern Miss with a 24-22 record against teams from Sun Belt West schools in the
Dustin Kerns era. App State went 3-2 against the Sun Belt West last season, defeating Texas State, Southern Miss and ULM, but falling to Troy and Arkansas State. The Mountaineers enter play on Thursday with a 2-0 record against Sun Belt West schools this season.
App State enters Thursday's game with the most conference wins of any team in the Sun Belt since 2019 with 71. This mark is four clear of the next closest team (South Alabama - 67). App State enters Thursday as one of four teams with at least six wins in Sun Belt play this season (Troy, Coastal Carolina and Georgia State) and needs just four more wins to post its third consecutive 10-win season in Sun Belt play.
The Matchup
- Who: App State at Southern Miss
- Where: Reed Green Coliseum // Hattiesburg, Miss.
- When: Thursday, Jan. 29 // 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT)
Tune In
- Watch: Watch (ESPN+) | Lee Roberts (PxP), Larry Boyd (Color
- Listen: FLAGSHIP 97.3 (North Wilkesboro), 950 AM/92.7 FM (Greensboro), 790 AM/93.7 FM (Johnson City) | Matt Present (PxP)
- Live Stats: appstatesports.com
Last Time Out
Playing on back-to-back days after a winter storm impacted the Boone area this past weekend, App State posted back-to-back double-digit wins to open its Sun Belt West schedule last Thursday and Friday. The Mountaineers used a strong second half against the Ragin' Cajuns to pull away to a 14-point win on Thursday, before capping off the week with one of its best defensive performances of the season against ULM to win by 16 points.
The Mountaineers allowed just 43 points to the Warhawks last Friday, matching the mark for the fewest points allowed against a Division I opponent in the Kerns era (allowed 43 points at Old Dominion on Jan. 16, 2025). Additionally, App State allowed just 13 ULM made field goals, which marked the fewest field goals an App State team has allowed against a Division I team since at least the 2002-03 season. The Warhawks shot just 22 percent from the field last Friday, which marked the fourth-lowest field-goal percentage that App State has allowed in the Kerns era.
In App State's victory over Louisiana last Thursday, App State used a 15-2 second-half run to turn a one-point deficit into a double-digit lead with just over five minutes to play in regulation. A huge part of this run was App State's hot shooting, as it buried nine of its 13 second-half 3-pointers (69.2 percent).
Jalen Tot accounted for six of those nine 3-pointers, which included four during App State's 15-2 run.
Scouting the Mountaineers
App State enters play on Thursday with a 13-9 record and a 6-4 record in Sun Belt play, which places it in a tie for fifth place in the league standings. The Mountaineers sit just two games back from the Sun Belt's leader, Troy, in the win column, and are one of just four teams with at least six wins in league play. App State has won nine of its last 13 games entering Thursday and has won two games in a row by at least 14 points.
Hitting the road for the first time since Jan. 10, the Mountaineers are slated to play their 11th and 12th games of the season away from home. App State enters Thursday with a 4-6 record on the road, posting wins over Dartmouth (Nov. 16), ECU (Dec. 11), Old Dominion (Dec. 31) and Georgia State (Jan. 8). This will be the first road trip for the Mountaineers since embarking on a season-long four-game road trip from Dec. 31 to Jan. 10, which saw App State post a 2-2 record. The Mountaineers will play five of their final nine games away from home this season.
The Mountaineers continue to be one of the best defensive teams in the Sun Belt Conference entering Thursday as they pace the league in scoring defense, allowing 65.5 points a game, which is 3.3 points ahead of the next closest team (South Alabama - 68.8). The Mountaineers enter play on Thursday having held back-to-back opponents below 60 points (Louisiana - 58 and ULM - 43), which marked the 19th and 20th times since the start of last season that App State has held an opponent to 60 points or fewer.
Three players enter Thursday averaging at least 10 points in
Kasen Jennings (14.6),
Alonzo Dodd (12.8) and
Luke Wilson (10.8). Jennings and Dodd each tallied 23 points on Jan. 15 against JMU, marking the first time this season that two or more Mountaineers have eclipsed 23 points in the same game. Dodd has been especially hot since Sun Belt play opened, as he is averaging a team-best 14.9 points a game, which is the 19th-highest tally in the league. Jennings enters play on Thursday having scored at least 17 points in three of his last four games.
Scouting the Golden Eagles
Southern Miss heads into Thursday's action with an 11-11 record and a 5-5 record in Sun Belt play. The Golden Eagles started Sun Belt play as one of the hottest teams in the league by winning five of their first six games, but they enter Thursday having lost each of their last four games.
Despite having lost each of their last four games, all of which came on the road, the Golden Eagles are 6-1 at home this season. Southern Miss enters Thursday's contest vs. App State with a 41-10 record at home since the start of the 2022-23 season. This season, Southern Miss is scoring 88.5 points per game at Reed Green Coliseum.
Southern Miss is led on offense by Tylik Weeks, who enters Thursday as the Sun Belt's third-leading scorer, averaging 17.8 points per game. Weeks has scored in double figures in all but one game this season (the second game of the year), and is coming off a 22-point game against Coastal Carolina last Saturday. It was his eighth 20-point game of the season.
Series History
App State and Southern Miss are slated to meet for the fifth time on Thursday, with this being the third matchup between the two teams in Hattiesburg.
The two teams last met in Boone just under a year ago, which saw the Mountaineers pull off a thrilling, buzzer-beating victory by two points. That win was App State's first over Southern Miss, which also helped Kerns defeat every current Sun Belt team he has faced.
Thursday's game will be the first time that App State will travel to Southern Miss since Dec. 31, 2022, which saw the Golden Eagles grab a six-point win. App State will look for its first win over Southern Miss in Hattiesburg when it takes the floor on Thursday.
Next Up
The Mountaineers will head to Troy, Ala., to meet the reigning Sun Belt Tournament champion Troy Trojans to cap off their two-game road trip on Saturday. Tip off from Trojan Arena is slated for 4:33 p.m. ET (3:33 p.m. CT), and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
