King College stuns ASU
by Steve Behr Sports Editor
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com
It was supposed to be a breather-type home game for an Appalachian State team in the middle of a four-game road stretch. Just schedule a Division II team such as King College and collect a victory while King collects a check.
Somehow, King did not get that message.
Instead, the Tornado not only picked up an appearance check, but also collected an 87-76 in front of 1,807 stunned Mountaineer faithful at the Holmes Center Monday night. King (13-4), located in Bristol, Tenn., led most of the way and even pushed its largest lead to 19 points early in the second half.
"I don't think King College has ever beaten a Division I school before," King coach George Pitts said. "This is my fourth year here and we certainly haven't and we've played one or two every year. When you get in that situation, I think in the back of everybody's mind is how long can we hang with them?"
The answer to that question turned out to be the entire game. It was the first time King had ever beaten Appalachian State in 15 tries. The last time King played Appalachian State, back in 1998 in Peterson's final season of his first term with the Mountaineers, ASU beat the Tornado 80-40.
Fat chance of that happening Monday night. Once King took the lead midway through the first half, the Tornado gave it back just once, for a possession.
King and Appalachian State made the same amount of shots from the field and the Mountaineers actually made one more 3-pointer than King.
However, the Tornado did the most damage from the foul line by converting 23-of-29 free throws.
Appalachian State made just 11-of-18 of its free throws, and also turned the ball over 18 times that led to 16 King points. A halfcourt trap mixed with a 2-3 zone seemed to frustrate the Mountaineers most of the game.
"They definitely rushed us," Booth said. "We've got to get the point guards to just settle down and be ready to handle the pressure."
For Appalachian State (12-10), it is back to the drawing board. Looming this Saturday is a showdown at Southern Conference North Division leader Western Carolina, the third of the four road games the Mountaineers must travel in this part of their schedule.
Appalachian State beat Western 87-74 the first time the teams played.
Mountaineers coach Buzz Peterson refused to use the fact Appalachian State was playing its third game in six days as an excuse. He said there was plenty of blame to go around for a loss that is arguably the worst for the Mountaineers in over a decade and the worst in Peterson's two stints as ASU's coach.
"Obviously this is a tough one," Peterson said. "But when you think about it, King was a much better ballclub than us tonight. They were more scrappy. They hustled more. They outcoached us. They did everything. It was their night."
The Tornado had five players, three of them off the bench, score in double figures. Clarence Smith, a 6-foot-6 center, seemed unstoppable at times in scoring his team-high 22 points.
Smith hit 8-of-14 from the field and 6-of-7 from the foul line.
"The ball was just going in for us," Smith said. "I think that for the most part, we played pretty unselfishly. We had to make a conscious effort not to just jack the ball up the first look we got and try to take a good look and not take any contested threes or bad shots. I think that really worked out for us in the long run."
Smith was not alone. Mark Dockery drained three 3-pointers and finished with 15 points. Brian Hewitt scored 15 points and dished out 10 assists off the bench and Elisha Murray added 11 points off the bench. Stephen Kite scored 12.
Peterson began the game with a four-guard lineup consisting of Donald Sims, Marcus Wright, Jeremi Booth and Kellen Brand. Tyler Webb was the lone player who is not a natural guard that was in the starting lineup.
Missing from that lineup were 6-10 center Ike Butts and forwards Josh Hunter and Andre Williamson. Hunter played poorly in ASU's 85-80 loss to Chattanooga last Saturday, but responded to his lack of starting by scoring six points in just two minutes in the first half, and a scoring a career and team high 22 points in 17 total minutes.
"It was a statement," Peterson said of the change. "What I did was - Williamson's Hunter's and Butts' effort, I thought, was bad at Chattanooga and I just did not like the way their intensity was. Their intensity did not meet the demands of the game that we play and basically I told them that they were scout team yesterday and they ran through their stuff."
Butts, who did not play until late in the first half, finished with nine points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field. He also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
Sims, who struggled from the field against Chattanooga, once again had problems finding the basket. He made just 3-of-13 from the field, 2-of-2 from the foul line, and finished with 11 points. Booth scored 13 points and Brand had 12.
Peterson sent all 15 players in uniform, including walk-ons J.R. Archer and Jacob Lail, on the court by the first half looking for somebody to put forth the effort he expected.
"I was trying to find some intensity when I went with Archer and Lail," Peterson said. "The reason I did that was that I wasn't finding guys that were playing hard. I want people to play hard. We've got guys who just aren't playing hard."
Appalachian State played to the usual script by taking a 5-0 lead early and led 17-13 before King responded with an 11-0 run to take a 24-17 lead.
The Mountaineers would never lead again. King expanded that advantage to 39-31 by halftime and opened the second half with a 13-2 run, helped by back-to-back 3-pointers by Dockery, to take a 52-33 lead with 15:55 left in the game.
Appalachian State managed to rally and closed to within 61-60 following a 9-4 burst. But King responded with a 9-2 run to claim a 70-62 lead that would never go lower than four points the rest of the game.
"They were going to make it a game," Pitts said. "They were going to make it tight. How are we going to handle it, and that's what I'm more proud of than anything."
King 87, Appalachian State 76
King (13-4)
Seymore 2-7 3-4 7, Blair 0-2 2-2 2, Dockery 6-13 0-1 15, McCargo 1-3 0-0 3, Kite 4-8 3-5 12, Hewitt 5-10 4-4 15, Murray 3-5 5-6 11, Smith 8-14 6-7 22. Totals 29-62 23-29 87.
Appalachian State (12-10)
Webb 0-1 0-0 0, Sims 3-13 2-2 11, Wright 1-2 0-0 3, Booth 5-11 0-0 13, Brand 5-13 2-2 12, Abraham 2-7 0-0 4, Healy 0-0 0-0 0, Archer 0-1 0-0 0, Hunter 8-9 6-12 22, Lail 0-0 0-0 0, Highsmith 0-2 0-0 0, Butts 4-6 1-1 9, Nirenberg 1-1 0-1 2, Williamson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 29-67 11-18 76.
Halftime score-King 39, ASU 31. 3-point goals- King 6-27 (Dockery 3-10, McCargo 1-1, Kite 1-4, Hewitt 1-5, Murray 0-2, Blair 0-2, Seymore 0-3); ASU 7-28 (Booth 3-8, Sims 3-9, Wright 1-1, Archer 0-1, Highsmith 0-2). Rebounds-King 37 (Smith 13), ASU 41 (Butts 8). Assists-King 19 (Hewitt 10), ASU 16 (Brand 6). Turnovers-King 12, ASU 18. Total fouls-King 19, ASU 21. Fouled out-None. Technical fouls-None. A-1,807.
sports@wataugademocrat.com
It was supposed to be a breather-type home game for an Appalachian State team in the middle of a four-game road stretch. Just schedule a Division II team such as King College and collect a victory while King collects a check.
Somehow, King did not get that message.
Instead, the Tornado not only picked up an appearance check, but also collected an 87-76 in front of 1,807 stunned Mountaineer faithful at the Holmes Center Monday night. King (13-4), located in Bristol, Tenn., led most of the way and even pushed its largest lead to 19 points early in the second half.
"I don't think King College has ever beaten a Division I school before," King coach George Pitts said. "This is my fourth year here and we certainly haven't and we've played one or two every year. When you get in that situation, I think in the back of everybody's mind is how long can we hang with them?"
The answer to that question turned out to be the entire game. It was the first time King had ever beaten Appalachian State in 15 tries. The last time King played Appalachian State, back in 1998 in Peterson's final season of his first term with the Mountaineers, ASU beat the Tornado 80-40.
Fat chance of that happening Monday night. Once King took the lead midway through the first half, the Tornado gave it back just once, for a possession.
King and Appalachian State made the same amount of shots from the field and the Mountaineers actually made one more 3-pointer than King.
However, the Tornado did the most damage from the foul line by converting 23-of-29 free throws.
Appalachian State made just 11-of-18 of its free throws, and also turned the ball over 18 times that led to 16 King points. A halfcourt trap mixed with a 2-3 zone seemed to frustrate the Mountaineers most of the game.
"They definitely rushed us," Booth said. "We've got to get the point guards to just settle down and be ready to handle the pressure."
For Appalachian State (12-10), it is back to the drawing board. Looming this Saturday is a showdown at Southern Conference North Division leader Western Carolina, the third of the four road games the Mountaineers must travel in this part of their schedule.
Appalachian State beat Western 87-74 the first time the teams played.
Mountaineers coach Buzz Peterson refused to use the fact Appalachian State was playing its third game in six days as an excuse. He said there was plenty of blame to go around for a loss that is arguably the worst for the Mountaineers in over a decade and the worst in Peterson's two stints as ASU's coach.
"Obviously this is a tough one," Peterson said. "But when you think about it, King was a much better ballclub than us tonight. They were more scrappy. They hustled more. They outcoached us. They did everything. It was their night."
The Tornado had five players, three of them off the bench, score in double figures. Clarence Smith, a 6-foot-6 center, seemed unstoppable at times in scoring his team-high 22 points.
Smith hit 8-of-14 from the field and 6-of-7 from the foul line.
"The ball was just going in for us," Smith said. "I think that for the most part, we played pretty unselfishly. We had to make a conscious effort not to just jack the ball up the first look we got and try to take a good look and not take any contested threes or bad shots. I think that really worked out for us in the long run."
Smith was not alone. Mark Dockery drained three 3-pointers and finished with 15 points. Brian Hewitt scored 15 points and dished out 10 assists off the bench and Elisha Murray added 11 points off the bench. Stephen Kite scored 12.
Peterson began the game with a four-guard lineup consisting of Donald Sims, Marcus Wright, Jeremi Booth and Kellen Brand. Tyler Webb was the lone player who is not a natural guard that was in the starting lineup.
Missing from that lineup were 6-10 center Ike Butts and forwards Josh Hunter and Andre Williamson. Hunter played poorly in ASU's 85-80 loss to Chattanooga last Saturday, but responded to his lack of starting by scoring six points in just two minutes in the first half, and a scoring a career and team high 22 points in 17 total minutes.
"It was a statement," Peterson said of the change. "What I did was - Williamson's Hunter's and Butts' effort, I thought, was bad at Chattanooga and I just did not like the way their intensity was. Their intensity did not meet the demands of the game that we play and basically I told them that they were scout team yesterday and they ran through their stuff."
Butts, who did not play until late in the first half, finished with nine points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field. He also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
Sims, who struggled from the field against Chattanooga, once again had problems finding the basket. He made just 3-of-13 from the field, 2-of-2 from the foul line, and finished with 11 points. Booth scored 13 points and Brand had 12.
Peterson sent all 15 players in uniform, including walk-ons J.R. Archer and Jacob Lail, on the court by the first half looking for somebody to put forth the effort he expected.
"I was trying to find some intensity when I went with Archer and Lail," Peterson said. "The reason I did that was that I wasn't finding guys that were playing hard. I want people to play hard. We've got guys who just aren't playing hard."
Appalachian State played to the usual script by taking a 5-0 lead early and led 17-13 before King responded with an 11-0 run to take a 24-17 lead.
The Mountaineers would never lead again. King expanded that advantage to 39-31 by halftime and opened the second half with a 13-2 run, helped by back-to-back 3-pointers by Dockery, to take a 52-33 lead with 15:55 left in the game.
Appalachian State managed to rally and closed to within 61-60 following a 9-4 burst. But King responded with a 9-2 run to claim a 70-62 lead that would never go lower than four points the rest of the game.
"They were going to make it a game," Pitts said. "They were going to make it tight. How are we going to handle it, and that's what I'm more proud of than anything."
King 87, Appalachian State 76
King (13-4)
Seymore 2-7 3-4 7, Blair 0-2 2-2 2, Dockery 6-13 0-1 15, McCargo 1-3 0-0 3, Kite 4-8 3-5 12, Hewitt 5-10 4-4 15, Murray 3-5 5-6 11, Smith 8-14 6-7 22. Totals 29-62 23-29 87.
Appalachian State (12-10)
Webb 0-1 0-0 0, Sims 3-13 2-2 11, Wright 1-2 0-0 3, Booth 5-11 0-0 13, Brand 5-13 2-2 12, Abraham 2-7 0-0 4, Healy 0-0 0-0 0, Archer 0-1 0-0 0, Hunter 8-9 6-12 22, Lail 0-0 0-0 0, Highsmith 0-2 0-0 0, Butts 4-6 1-1 9, Nirenberg 1-1 0-1 2, Williamson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 29-67 11-18 76.
Halftime score-King 39, ASU 31. 3-point goals- King 6-27 (Dockery 3-10, McCargo 1-1, Kite 1-4, Hewitt 1-5, Murray 0-2, Blair 0-2, Seymore 0-3); ASU 7-28 (Booth 3-8, Sims 3-9, Wright 1-1, Archer 0-1, Highsmith 0-2). Rebounds-King 37 (Smith 13), ASU 41 (Butts 8). Assists-King 19 (Hewitt 10), ASU 16 (Brand 6). Turnovers-King 12, ASU 18. Total fouls-King 19, ASU 21. Fouled out-None. Technical fouls-None. A-1,807.