UNCG - Appalachian State Box Score
Box Score
BOONE, NC -- Kyle Hines scored a career-high 23 points to lead UNC Greensboro to an 84-79 win over Appalachian State in Southern Conference men's basketball action on Saturday afternoon to snap the Mountaineers' six-game homecourt winning streak.
Hines connected on his first eight shots from the field and finished the afternoon 11-for-13. It was the second 20-point game of the season for the freshman from Sickerlville, NJ. Ray Bristow added a season-high 20 points for UNCG.
UNCG, off to its best overall start in 10 years, moved to 9-4 overall and 2-0 in Southern Conference play with the win. It is the first time since 1999-2000 that UNCG started the SoCon season with two wins. The Spartans won for the fourth time in their last five trips to Boone and snapped Appalachian State's six-game home winning streak.
"This was a total team victory today," said UNCG coach Fran McCaffery. "With the way we started out today, we needed every last bit of effort today. With Ray coming off the bench, getting us started when we were struggling early on. We got good minutes from Dustin Everette and Dwon Clifton early, as well. Ronnie Burrell doesn't score for the first 30 minutes, but grabs 10 rebounds. And, of course, Kyle was superb again underneath. It was a great effort."
The Mountaineers started out quickly, scoring the game's first eight points. UNCG battled back from the early deficit to tie the game, 22-22, after Dustin Everette's conventional three-point play. Appalachian State opened up a three-point lead before UNCG stormed back and took its first lead of the game, 30-28, on Josh Gross' putback with 5:33 left in the first half.
The teams see-sawed back and forth from there with UNCG taking a 40-37 lead into the locker room behind Hines' 12 first-half points and Bristow's 10. Hines shot 6-for-6 from the floor in the first half.
The Spartans held that lead despite the fact that Ronnie Burrell, UNCG's leading scorer entering the game at 16.8 points per game, was held scoreless and took just one shot from the field and Ricky Hickman, who entered the game right behind Burrell at 16.6 ppg, was just 1-for-5 from the field and scored just two points in the first half. Burrell didn't score until the 10:26 mark of the second half and finished with just eight points, but did have five assists to go with 10 rebounds.
UNCG took control early in the second half. With 15:29 to play, Josh Gross knocked down a three-pointer from the top of the key to give UNCG a 50-43 advantage. After Chris McFarland scored on a jumper for Appalachian State, Ricky Hickman converted a four-point playwhen he knocked down a three-pointer from the left corner and was fouled. After a UNCG stop on the other end, Gross putback Hines' first miss of the afternoon to give the Spartans their first double-digit lead of the game.
After an Appalachian State timeout, Hines converted a conventional three-point play to give UNCG its biggest lead of the day at 59-45. The Mountaineers, however, made a one-man run when Nathan Cranford knocked down a pair of three-pointers from the right corner, the second of which he converted into a four-point play after he was fouled, to pull within seven, 59-52.
UNCG maintained its seven-point for most of the next eight minutes, but Appalachian State made a run with three minutes to play. Demetrius Scott drained a three-pointer with 1:58 to play, capping a 6-0 run to cut the UNCG lead to three, 75-72. After a UNCG timeout, Bristow was called for an offensive foul trying to break the Mountaineers' full-court pressure. However, the Mountaineers couldn't convert as Derek Thomas was called for an offensive foul trying to put back a Mountaineer miss.
After that, the Spartans knocked down 9-of-10 from the line in the final 1:50 to clinch the victory.
Appalachian State entered the game second in the SoCon in three-pointers per game, averaging 8.5 per contest. Compounding that was the fact that UNCG entered the game having allowed 9.0 three-pointers per contest, which was next-to-last in the SoCon. However, Appalachian State shot just 6-for-20 from three-point range on the day.
In addition, UNCG committed just 11 turnovers on the day to make them 8-0 this year when committing fewer turnovers than the opposition. The Mountainteers committed 13 turnovers on the afternoon.
Thomas led Appalachian State (6-6, 1-2 SoCon) with 18 points. McFarland added 12 points.
The Spartans finish up their two-game road swing on Monday night when they face Furman University beginning at 7 pm.
AGATE
UNC GREENSBORO (9-4, 2-0 SoCon)
HINES, 11-13 1-1 23; BRISTOW, 5-10 8-8 20; GROSS, 4-5 1-2 10; HICKMAN, 3-10 2-3 9; BURRELL, 1-6 6-6 8; EVERETTE, 2-2 1-1 5; CLIFTON, 1-5 3-6 5; OLEKSIAK, 1-2 0-0 2; BECKFORD, 1-1 0-0 2; JOHNSON, 0--3 0-0 0. Totals 29-57 22-27 84.
APPALACHIAN STATE (6-6, 1-2 SoCon)
THOMAS, 7-12 4-7 18; McFARLAND, 6-15 0-1 12; CRANFORD, 3-6 1-1 9; DAVIS, 4-5 0-0 9; JONES,3-5 1-2 8; McLAUGHLIN-WILLIAMS 3-8 0-0 6; SCOTT, 2-4 1-2 6; BROWN, 1-3 2-3 5; CLAYTON, 2-6 0-2 4; THOMPSON, 0-7 2-2 2. Totals 31-71 11-20 79.
Halftime: UNCG 40-37. 3-point goals: UNC Greensboro 4-11 (BRISTOW, 2-4; GROSS, 1-1; HICKMAN, 1-3; CLIFTON, 0-1; OLEKSIAK, 0-1; BURRELL, 0-1), Appalachian State 6-20 (CRANFORD, 2-5; DAVIS, 1-2; SCOTT, 1-1; BROWN, 1-3; JONES,1-1; THOMPSON, 0-5; McLAUGHLIN-WILLIAMS 0-3). Fouled out: UNC Greensboro-None, Appalachian State-None. Rebounds-UNC Greensboro 34 (BURRELL, 10), Appalachian State 41 (CLAYTON, 8). Assists: UNC Greensboro 10 (BURRELL, 5), Appalachian State 14 (THOMPSON, 4). Total fouls: UNC Greensboro 16, Appalachian State 20. A-1739.
