The final play of Wofford's 66-64 victory over Appalachian State Saturday at the Holmes Center worked for the Mountaineers earlier in the game.

It was designed to be an inbounds play to Tab Hamilton, who would take the last shot. Hamilton scored on the play earlier in the game, and with four seconds left, would have a chance to do so again.

However, Hamilton never got his hands on the ball. Signals got crossed, and the inbounds pass went to Omar Carter. His 17-foot shot fell short, and the Terriers (16-11, 9-6 SoCon) held on to grab the win and keep pace for second place in the Southern Conference South Division.

Mountaineers coach Jason Capel said he would have liked to have called a timeout, but did not have any left. He said the lack of rebounding down the stretch, including two plays late in the game, played a role in the loss.

“(Hamilton) was caught out of that position by one of his teammates,” Capel said.
“But without a timeout, it's tough. We didn't lose the game on that play. We had two opportunities to get rebounds. We would have had the ball down one if we just get a rebound. On a free throw, we don't get it, it goes out and they get another opportunity. On a regular shot, they get on offensive rebound.”

“Jason was out of timeouts,” Wofford coach Mike Young said. “We had two. We've got a very good idea of what people are going to do. There are no secrets now. Our team knows that with four seconds, not a lot of time to wiggle around. It's going to be something quick, probably to the ball side.”

Appalachian State (10-15, 6-9) trailed 59-49, but rallied with a 9-0 run to pull to 59-58. The run was capped by a rare four-point play by Mike Neal, who was fouled when he drained a 3-point shot, and added the ensuing free throw.

“That's life on the road,” Young said. “They had a big crowd in here today and they got jacked up and we were on our heels a little bit.”

Then came the first missed opportunity Capel talked about. Wofford's Kevin Giltner missed the front end of a one-and-one foul shot with 4:35 left, but Appalachian State could not secure the rebound and it wet back to the Terriers. Lee Skinner was fouled on the ensuing possession and converted both free throws to put the Terriers up 61-58.

The second missed opportunity came when Aerris Smith missed the second of his two foul shots with Wofford leading 62-58. The ball went back to Wofford, but the Terriers did not score.

Brad Loesing delivered the final knockout punch by making a 3-point shot with 1:05 on the clock that put Wofford in front 65-60. Carter came back with a basket with 56.4 left on the clock, and Andre Williamson hit an inside shot on a Neal assist to close ASU to 65-64 with 14.5 left.

Skinner made one foul shot, and missed the second with 13.6 left. Carter grabbed the rebound and Neal drove to the basket, but missed the shot. The Mountaineers got it back with four seconds, which set the final play in motion.

“We're down two and you want to attack the basket,” Capel said. “I thought Mike did a good job getting there. You want to get it on the backboard to get the opportunity to get the offensive rebound. Whether he got fouled or not doesn't matter.”

Capel said the game was not lost on the final play. Instead, he pointed out that the Mountaineers grabbed just four offensive rebounds and that Wofford also held a 13-0 edge in second-chance points, though Appalachian State held a 16-6 edge in points off turnovers.

“Thirteen second-chance points to zero,” Capel said. “We miss 30 shots and get four offensive rebounds. That's effort. We're a bigger team. We have some seniors up front who are all bigger than everybody they had and we have to do a better job of rebounding the ball.”

Neal led all Appalachian State scorers with 15 points. Hamilton added 11 and Williamson scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds.

Loesing led all scorers with 16 points. Giltner scored 13 and Skinner finished with 11. Drew Crowell scored 10 points and pulled down nine rebounds.

Appalachian State stayed in fourth place of the SoCon's North Division with a home game against Chattanooga (10-17, 4-10) looming on Wednesday.

Wofford 66, Appalachian State 64

Wofford (16-11, 9-6)

Smith 3-4 1-2 7, Crowell 5-9 0-2 10, Cochran 2-10 3-4 8, Giltner 5-10 0-1 13, Loesing 7-15 0-0 16, Byrd 0-0 1-2 1, Skinner 3-7 4-6 11, Rinksalis 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-55 9-17 66.

Appalachian State (10-15, 6-9)

Healy 3-5 2-2 8, Williamson 5-8 0-0 10, Hamilton 3-6 3-3 11, Vilarino 1-7 2-2 4, Neal 4-10 6-12 15, Trice 0-1 1-2 1, Carter 1-7 0-0 2, Butts 0-1 2-2 2, Woods 2-3 1-2 6, Hausley 1-2 3-4 5. Totals 20-50 20-29 64.

Halftime score—Wofford 27, ASU 25. 3-point goals—Wofford 7-16 (Giltner 3-6, Loesing 2-6, Skinner 1-2), ASU 4-13 (Hamilton 2-3, Neal 1-2, Woods 1-2, Vilarino 0-1, Healy 0-2, Carter 0-2). Rebounds—Wofford 39 (Crowell 9), ASU 25 (Wiliamson 6). Assists—Wofford 18 (Cochran 6), ASU 9 (Neal 3). Turnovers—Wofford 14, ASU 6. Total fouls—Wofford 20, ASU 14. Fouled out—None. Technical fouls—None. A—2,077.