JONESBORO – The Arkansas State football team was upended by Appalachian State 35-9 Tuesday night at Centennial Bank Stadium.

Appalachian State (4-1, 2-0 Sun Belt) racked up 390 total yards behind 246 yards on the ground while forcing three A-State (3-3, 0-2 Sun Belt) turnovers and limiting the Red Wolves to 3-of-17 on third down. Thirteen of the Red Wolves’ 16 drives consisted of five or fewer plays, but the Red Wolves amassed 336 yards of offense with 219 yards coming in the aerial attack.

“I am obviously disappointed in how we played and it is real simple; we are not playing good football right now and that falls on me,” said A-State head coach Blake Anderson. “We have to find some consistency and balance, and we have not played well this season yet. Offensively, we move the ball, but we can’t finish while defensively we’ve got to make them kick field goals and create some turnovers. Those things aren’t happening consistently in any of those phases.”

Justice Hansen was 25-of-40 passing for 209 yards while Marcel Murry led A-State’s rushing attack with 11 carries for 37 yards. Hansen connected with nine different receivers with Kirk Merritt leading the way catching nine passes for 73 yards. Defensively, Tajheha Chambers led the Red Wolves with 10 tackles, including 2.5 tackles for loss.

Blake Grupe connected on three field goals in the first half, the first two staking the Red Wolves to a 6-0 lead. His second field goal was a career long 47-yard boot.  Appalachian State grabbed a 7-6 advantage on a 26-yard touchdown scamper, but Grupe put his third FG attempt through the uprights as A-State regained the lead at 9-7 with 4:37 to play in the half. The Mountaineers answered with a four-play, 74-yard drive to lead 14-7 with 2:57 to go in the half.

Appalachian State picked off two passes in the last four minutes of the half, the first of which set up the Mountaineers inside the A-State five yard line. Appalachian State expanded the advantage to 21-9 with a one-yard touchdown scamper and the second pick ended the Red Wolves chances of a score before the halftime break.

A-State held the Mountaineers off the scoreboard on the first possession of the second half, but Appalachian State’s defense continued its strong play in limiting the Red Wolves. The Mountaineers increased their advantage with a five-play, 86 yard scoring drive to lead A-State 28-9 heading to the fourth quarter. A 62-yard quarterback keeper capped the scoring for Appalachian State and the Mountaineers sealed the 35-9 defeat for A-State.

“It’s just time for us to dig deep and find out what we can do to put the guys in a position to be successful,” said Anderson. “I have to look and see what I am doing offensively and what we are trying to run and we have to find out what we can pass. I don’t care if I have to revamp the whole thing, and it doesn’t matter what groups in the past have done, I’ve got to find out what this group can do and find some confidence.”

A-State hosts Georgia State on Thursday, October 18 at 6:30 p.m. in a nationally-televised contest on ESPNU.

The post A-State upended by Appalachian State appeared first on ArkansasSports.Net.

NEW ORLEANS, La. (3/6/18) – The Arkansas State women’s basketball team saw its season come to a close with a 79-68 loss to Appalachian State on Tuesday in the opening round of the Sun Belt Conference Championship Tournament at Lakefront Arena.

Payton Tennison tied a career-high with 16 points, all in the second half, while Lauren Bradshaw closed out her A-State career with 14 points, five rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks. Morgan Wallace also finished in double-figures with 12 points and added four steals and four blocks.

A-State trailed by nine at halftime, but outscored Appalachian State 26-13 in the third quarter to take a four point lead heading into the fourth quarter, but the Mountaineers answered with a 19-3 run of their own over a six minute stretch of the final period to put the game out of reach in the final minutes for the Red Wolves.

Arkansas State concludes it season with a 15-15 overall record, while Appalachian State improved to 8-22 overall and will take on the top-seeded Little Rock Trojans in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

Lapreshia Stanley led the way for Appalachian State with 27 points, while Bayley Plummer added a double-double with 18 points and 19 rebounds.

“The biggest difference in this game was the offensive rebounding and the other is the free throw comparison,” head coach Brian Boyer said. “We gave them 20 offensive rebounds and they went 21-of-26 at the line as opposed to our own 3-of-7 and that was our own doing.

“We didn’t finish plays a lot and it turned into fouls and we didn’t rebound a lot and that turns into fouls and then on our end we could never really aggressively get into the paint and Plummer does a great job of playing inside without fouling.”

The Red Wolves used a 9-0 run to jump out to an early 9-0 lead after Jada Ford hit a pair of 3-pointers and Morgan Wallace converted an and-1 play, but the hot shooting would not last as A-State went on a four-plus minute scoring drought and closed the first quarter going just 1-of-11 from the field to allow the Mountaineers to take a 15-11 lead.

Both teams improved their shooting percentages in the second period and the Red Wolves lead 22-21 three minutes in, but the Mountaineers used a 6-0 run to take a 25-22 edge. Appalachian State outworked the Red Wolves on the boards 28-21. Appalachian State took their largest of the half after Lapresha Stanley scored the final five points of the frame to take a 38-29 lead into the halftime break.

Bradshaw scored 10 points for A-State in the first half, while Wallace added eight.

A-State quickly erased the halftime deficit with a 16-4 run to go up 52-46 with 1:28 to go in the third quarter. Lycia Peevy and Tennison helped spark the run with 3-pointers to cut into the Mountaineers’ lead, while Morgan Wallace and Starr Taylor got steals on three straight defensive stands to push the lead to its largest point at 55-48 with 1:05 remaining.

Tennison led the way with 10 points in the third quarter on 4-of-5 shooting as the Red Wolves outscored Appalachian State 26-13.

Appalachian State scored five straight points to take a one point lead at the start of the fourth quarter, but Tennison answered with a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired to put the Red Wolves back out in front at 58-56 with 8:16 to go in the game.

The Mountaineers responded, however, and proceeded to go in a 19-3 over the next seven minutes to build a 77-65 lead with just one minute to go in the game. A-State went cold from the field during the stretch as Appalachian State held a 14-7 edge on the boards over the final ten minutes and shot 52.9 percent from the field. They were also aided by a 7-8 performance at the free throw in the quarter.

Tennison scored all of her team-high 16 points in the second half, while Taylor added eight.

Notables:

·         Payton Tennison tied a career-high with 16 points. All 16 points came in the second half. Her previous 16 point outing came against Troy in the quarterfinals of the SBC Tournament in 2017.

·         Lauren Bradshaw finished her career with 176 blocks, the most ever by an Arkansas State player. She now ranks in the top-15 in career blocks among all Sun Belt players.

·         Morgan Wallace scored in double-figures for the second straight game.

·         Starr Taylor finished one assist shy of matching her career best of seven assists.

·         The Red Wolves’ 21 assists are the most in a game this season.

Quoting Coach Boyer:

“The biggest difference in this game was the offensive rebounding and the other is the free throw comparison. We gave them 20 offensive rebounds and they went 21-of-26 at the line as opposed to our own 3-of-7 and that was our own doing. We didn’t finish plays a lot and it turned into fouls and we didn’t rebound a lot and that turns into fouls and then on our end we could never really aggressively get into the paint and Plummer does a great job of playing inside without fouling.”

The post Red Wolves fall in first round of Sun Belt Tournament appeared first on ArkansasSports.Net.

LITTLE ROCK – A sixth-inning pinch-hit grand slam by Jonathan Davis helped Little Rock baseball (10-16, 3-4 Sun Belt) beat Appalachian State (10-16, 1-6) by a score of 6-2 on Friday night at Gary Hogan Field.

Davis’ grand slam was the first by a Little Rock player since Bryson Thionnet in 2014, and it was the first pinch-hit home run by a Trojan since Niko Navarro in 2011. Davis finished the game 1 for 2.

Nik Gifford was a perfect 3 for 3 with a run and a walk, and Zach Baker went 2 for 5 with a run. Dalton Thomas was 1 for 3 with his eighth double of the season. Hunter Owens advanced his hitting streak to eight games with a hit and a run, and Bryce Dimitroff upped his reached-base streak to nine games with one hit, an RBI and a run.

Trojan reliever Dylan Slayton (2-0) earned the win in his conference-leading 17th appearance of the season. Slayton was phenomenal out of the bullpen as he allowed just one hit in 3.2 innings of work while recording one strikeout. Starter Cory Malcom (2-1) took the no-decision after striking out nine batters and allowing two runs on five hits and three walks in 5.1 innings on the bump. App State starter Travis Holden (1-4) took the loss as he threw six innings, struck out four and allowed four runs on six hits and three walks.

“I’m just so proud of these guys because they’ve been battling, and we’ve been going through a lot of tough games that haven’t gone our way,” head coach Chris Curry said. “These guys haven’t blinked, and they haven’t panicked. I thought Holden did an outstanding job of holding us down through five, and he really made it tough on us.”

The Trojans got off to a rocky start in the very first inning as the Mountaineers scored two runs on two hits. With one out and runners on first and second, a wild pitch allowed Calev Grubbs to score from second while Jason Curtis advanced to third. An RBI ground out by Tyler Stroup plated Curtis and gave App State a 2-0 lead.

After four scoreless innings, it was Little Rock’s time to shine. Gifford and Dimitroff earned a pair of two-out singles before Cale Ridling walked on a full count. Davis came on to pinch hit with bases loaded and delivered with his second home run of the season over the right field wall.

With a 4-2 lead entering the bottom of the seventh, the Trojans tacked on a couple of insurance runs. Baker welcomed new App State reliever Dallas DeVrieze to the game with a leadoff single through the left side before Owens singled through the right side. Still no outs, Thomas ripped an RBI double down the left field line to score Baker. After Gifford walked to put runners on the corners with one out, the Mountaineers brought on Sean Mason from the bullpen. Dimitroff hit into a ground out at short, but it brought home the Trojans’ sixth and final run of the game.

“App State has a good club over there, and they play hard,” Curry said. “I expect tomorrow to be a dog fight all day, but I’m just proud of these guys and how they’re continuing to stick with it even when it doesn’t go their way.”

Little Rock and App State will conclude the three-game series on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m., at Gary Hogan Field.

The post Grand slam by Davis powers Little Rock past App State appeared first on ArkansasSports.Net.