BOONE, N.C. — App State Men's Basketball faces an in-state rival Friday night, as the Mountaineers travel to Halton Arena to play Charlotte at 7 p.m.
The game will be streamed on ESPN+, or fans can listen live to Matt Present's radio call on the App State Sports Network.
App State is 2-1 following a 63-49 victory against Merrimack across the border in Rock Hill, S.C., a 108-43 home win against non-NCAA opponent Christendom and a 75-53 loss to Auburn, which increased its nonconference home winning streak to 71 games (counting two vacated wins) on Monday night.
App State trailed 38-36 at halftime, with Eren Banks scoring 11 of his team-high 19 points during an 18-7 run to close the half. The Mountaineers trailed 51-44 midway through the second half before a flagrant foul call contributed to an 8-0 run by Auburn over the next minute.
With no App State starter playing more than 13 minutes against Christendom, season statistics aren't particularly revealing at this point, but guard Jaylen Colon has team-leading averages of 11.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists through three games. Ten Mountaineers played rotation minutes at Auburn.
Charlotte is also 2-1 in its first season under the direction of head coach Wes Miller, who won a national title as a North Carolina player in 2005, served as UNCG's head coach from 2011-21 and went 100-74 as Cincinnati's head coach from 2021-26.
The 49ers opened the season with a 78-70 win at Indiana State and won 77-67 against Sun Belt foe Georgia State in a Nov. 5 home opener at Halton Arena before falling 68-62 against Seton Hall in The Palestra on Monday night.
After averaging 3.8 points last season as a Cincinnati freshman, Charlotte guard Keyshaun Tillery has averaged 24.3 points through three games while shooting 24-for-46 from the field (52.2 percent) and 10-for-20 from 3-point range, with a 7-for-10 effort from long range in Game 1. The team's second-leading scorer, guard Dorian Finister, is a Louisiana transfer with 25 total points this season. He averaged 14.9 points for the Ragin' Cajuns last year, with 16 points in Boone and a 27-point game in the Sun Belt tournament.
App State meets Charlotte for the 43rd time overall and the sixth time since Dustin Kerns became the Mountaineers' head coach. The 49ers have a 26-16 overall lead in the series, but App State is 3-2 under Kerns, with the programs meeting in each of his first four seasons before playing again last season. Kasen Jennings made a tiebreaking, turnaround jumper from the right block with two seconds remaining in App State's 65-63 home victory.
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