Eventually a basketball team has to put the ball in the basket to win games.

Appalachian State had plenty of chances to do that, but struggled making shots for most of its 74-62 loss to College of Charleston Saturday at the Holmes Center. Appalachian State made just 37.1 percent of its shots from the field including just 3-of-19 (15.8 percent) from the field.

College of Charleston's Andrew Lawrence made 7-of-11 of his shots, and scored 24 points Lawrence made 6-of-8 from 3-point range, and also dished out seven assists.

Charleston (14-10, 6-7 SoCon) finished 11-of-26 from 3-point range. Nori Johnson connected on 3-of-5 foul shots and finished with 11 points.

Appalachian State (9-13, 5-7) had nobody to match that. Nathan Healy led the Mountaineers with 12 points, while Tab Hamilton and Isaac Butts each scored 10 points.

Omar Carter, Appalachian State's leading scorer at 13.5 points per game, settled for seven points on 3-of-11 shooting. Jamaal Tice, ASU's second leading scorer at 11.3 points per game, added six points on 3-of-15 shooting. Butts made 4-of-5 from the field to help score his 10 points.

“We've got to put them in the basket,” Carter said. “We missed a lot of layups off a lot of offensive rebounds.”

“We're getting good looks. At one point, we missed 14 layups,” Mountaineers coach Jason Capel said. “We missed I don't know how many open 15-foot jump shots. We're getting open looks. We're not putting them down. We have to continue to work and continue to believe and get back here tomorrow and put the ball in the basket and have confidence that we're going to do it — and we will do it Monday night against Elon.”

Appalachian State held a decisive 46-32 rebounding advantage, and even pulled down 21 offensive boards. Converting those offensive rebounds into points proved to be difficult. The Mountaineers outscored Charleston 18-2 with second-chance points.

“I'm not a big numbers guy, but when you look at the stat sheet and you get 17 extra shots and you're a plus 13 on the boards and you have a positive assist-to-turnover ratio, usually good things are going to happen,” Capel said. “For whatever reason, that ball didn't want to go in the basket for us.”

Charleston also held a 10-point advantage at the free throw line. The Cougars made 17-of-22 from the foul line compared to Appalachian State's 7-of-8.

Charleston took the lead for good with a 10-0 run capped by a Jordan Scott 3-point shot to claim a 59-45 lead 6:44 left in the game. The Cougars increased their led to 17 points three times, the final time being 74-57 with 53 seconds in the game.

“I think that's the natural evolution of shooting the ball,” Capel said. “I think because we were not making shots, we had a droppage in our defensive intensity. You can't have that and be a winning team, but again, we missed some bunnies. We missed some easy shots.”

The Mountaineers face a North Division showdown Monday at Elon. The Mountaineers beat Elon at the Holmes Center in their first meeting, but the Phoenix returned to the top of the North Division standings with a 6-4 league mark, 11-10 overall. The Bulldogs knocked off Woford 66-61 Saturday.

UNC Greensboro fell to 7-5, 9-15 following its 93-85 loss to Furman, also on Saturday. Samford is in third place at 6-6, 9-14.

 

College of Charleston 74, Appalachian State 62

College of Charleston (14-10. 6-7)

Wiggins 2-11 4-6 8, Wiedeman 5-12 4-5 14, Baru 1-2 3-4 5, Lawrence 7-11 4-4 24, Johnson 4-6 0-1 11, Johnson 4-6 0-1 11, Sundberg 2-7 2-2 7, Branin 0-0 0-0 0, Benton 0-0 0-0 0, Dixon 0-0 0-0 0, Carlton 0-1 0-0 0, Scott 2-3 0-0 5. Totals 23-53 17-22 74.

Appalachian State (9-13, 5-7)

Healy 5-13 1-1 12, Williamson 4-11 0-0 8, Hamilton 4-7 0-0 10, Trice 3-15 0-0 6, Neal 1-4 1-1 3, Vilarino 2-4 2-2 6, Carter 3-11 1-2 7, Butts 4-5 2-2 10, Woods 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-70 7-8 62.

Halftime score—CofC 35, ASU 32. 3-point goals—CofC 11-26 (Lawrence 6-8, Johnson 3-5, Scott 1-2, Sundberg 1-6, Wiggins 0-5); ASU 3-19 (Hamilton 2-3, Healy 1-2, Vilarino 0-1, Williamson 0-1, Neal 0-3, Trice 0-6). Rebounds—CofC 32 (Baru 9), ASU 46 (Healy, Williamson 8). Assists—CofC 12 (Lawrence 7), ASU 15 (Neal 4). Turnovers—CofC 8, ASU 13. Total fouls—CofC 11, ASU 18. Fouled out—None. Technical fouls—CofC, Baru; ASU, Trice. Att.—2,533.