Fate was not good to Appalachian State Thursday night, especially to freshman guard Tab Hamilton.

Appalachian State had just fallen behind by three, and then gave the ball back to visiting Samford twice — once with a turnover and then a missed foul shot.

Still, the Mountaineers caught a break when, with just .5 seconds left on the game clock, Hamilton was fouled taking a 30-foot, 3-point shot.

Hamilton made the first of his three free throws, but missed the second. Trying to miss his third foul shot, he banked it through, bringing the Mountaineers to 53-52 instead of giving the Mountaineers a slight chance of tipping in a rebound of the third foul shot.

Samford touched the ball on its inbounds shot and the one-point victory stood. The Bulldogs (8-14, 5-6) have won three of their last four — all conference games — and climbed back in the race in the North Division.

Appalachian State (9-12, 5-6) continued its unusual problem of not being able to win two games in a row. The Mountaineers beat then-first place Elon after losing to current North frontrunner UNC Greensboro.

“This whole year, it seems we cant' seem to win two in a row,” forward Nate Healy said. “It's a little bit of everything. We've got to figure out how to play our best basketball for 40 minutes every night — bring that every game.”

Healy was the only Mountaineer to reach double figures in scoring with 14 points. Point guard Mike Neal was the next closest with eight. Williams and Ike Butts each grabbed eight rebounds.

Appalachian State hosts College of Charleston at 2 p.m. Saturday, followed by a game at Elon Monday night.

“I would hope, that with eight games left in the season and with four seniors where this is it for them, that we have some leadership to come out and have the desire to play hard,” an upset Appalachian State coach Jason Capel said. “I take full responsibility for that. It's my fault. I'll devise a plan and see that the guys play harder on Saturday.”

The loss to Samford was tough to take because the Mountaineers led 35-30 early in the second half, but allowed the Bulldogs to go on a 9-0 run. Appalachian State missed five jump shots during the stretch without grabbing one offensive rebound against Samford's 2-3 zone.

“I thought the key for us was that we had eight turnovers in the first half and zero in the second,” Samford coach Jimmy Tillette said. “We had zero offensive rebounds in the first half and in the second half we had seven. You've got to find a way to win and we did. I'm sure they felt it wasn't their best game.”

Capel was upset that ASU fell behind 12-4 at the start of the game, forcing him to call timeout. He said the start of the second half was even worse.

“I was incredibly disappointed in our effort to start the game,” Capel said. “I had to call a timeout, raise my voice and say some things. We went into the half with a five-point lead, and we came out even more lethargic in the second half.”

The continued outside shooting was a big reason why Appalachian State did not go to the foul line all that much. The Mountaineers made just 5-of-8 from line, compared to 15-of-19 for Samford. Bulldogs center Drew Windler made all six of his attempts.

Appalachian State made 7-of-25 from 3-point range (28 percent) and 20-of-52 (38.5 percent) overall, which was better than Samford's 16 percent 3-point shooting and 36.2 overall shooting.

But Capel would have rather seen the ball go inside more and either go to the basket or get passed back outside for a jump shot instead of the Mountaineers settling for long jump shots at the beginning of the possession.

 “We didn't execute,” Capel said. “A lot of times we wanted to get the ball inside and when we did and we kicked it out, those were the good things. When we'd swing it around and then just shoot it, that was not a good thing.”

Appalachian State retook the lead twice, the second time when Jamaal Trice hit a jumper to put the Mountaineers in front 44-43 with 6:25 left. Samford answered with an old-fashioned three-point play from Tyler Hood to surge back in front.

Hood, who led all scorers with 18 points, added a 3-point shot and then gave an intentional big smile to the Appalachian State student section with 2:29 left after the teams traded four scoreless possessions. The Mountaineers eventually pulled to 51-50 with an Omar Carter 3-pointer with 53.1 seconds left, but Carter turned the ball over on the Mountaineers' next possession, and Andre Williamson missed the front end of a one-and-one foul shot to help Samford preserve the win.

 

 

Samford 53, Appalachian State 52

Samford (8-14, 5-6)

Hood 6-14 3-4 18, Windler 2-7 6-6 11, Merritt 4-7 1-4 9, Kelly 4-10 2-2 10, Cook 1-5 3-3 5, Hayman 0-2 0-0 0, Miller 0-2 0-0 0, Friday 0-0 0-0 0, McNeil 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-47 15-19 53.

Appalachian State (9-12, 5-6)

Healy 6-10 1-1 14, Williamson 2-4 1-2 5, Hamilton 2-8 2-3 7, Trice 3-14 0-0 7, Neal 3-6 0-0 8, Vilarino 0-2 0-0 0, Carter 2-5 0-0 6, Butts 2-2 1-2 5, Woods 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-52 5-8 52.

Halftime score—ASU 31, Samford 26. 3-point goals—Samford 4-25 (Hood 3-10, Windler 1-4, Kelly 0-3, Cook 0-3, Miller 0-2, Hayman 0-1), ASU 7-25 (Carter 2-3, Neal 2-5, Healey 1-2, Hamilton 1-5, Trice 1-8). Rebounds—Samford 33 (Merritt 10), ASU 34 (Williamson, Butts 8). Assists—Samford 9 (Merritt 6), ASU 15 (Carter 4). Turnovers—Samford 8, ASU 11. Total fouls—Samford 14, ASU 16. Fouled out—None. Technical fouls—None. Att.—1,022.