MBB: App State Rolls in Norfolk to Run Win Streak to Four

AP Scorecard
January 16, 2025
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January 17, 2025
AP Scorecard
January 16, 2025
Friday, January 17th
January 17, 2025
MBB: App State Rolls in Norfolk to Run Win Streak to Four

 

 

Jan. 16, 2025

 

Contact: Jacob Plecker (pl*******@ap******.edu)

 

Online: https://appstatesports.com/news/2025/1/16/mens-basketball-app-state-rolls-in-norfolk-to-run-win-streak-to-four.aspx

 

Box Score: Attached 

 

NORFOLK, Va. –  Scoring 14 of the game’s first 15 points to take an early double-digit lead, the App State Men’s Basketball team (10-7, 4-2 SBC) extended its winning streak to four games with a dominant 62-43 road victory over the Old Dominion Monarchs (8-10, 4-2 SBC) on Thursday. The win marked the first win of the season for the Mountaineers in true road games.
 
App State never trailed in the contest, marking the second time in the last three games that the Mountaineers haven’t endured a deficit in a game. In fact, when the Mountaineers made the score 11-1 with 15:46 to play in the opening half, the Mountaineer advantage fell below 10 points just one other time in the contest. App State led by as much as 20 points in the game, the fourth consecutive game in which it has held at least a 20-point lead.
 
It was a suffocating performance on the defensive end for App State as the Mountaineers held the Monarchs to just 15 made field goals and 43 points. The Monarchs’ 43 points are the fewest an App State team has given up against a Division I opponent since Feb. 28, 2015, against ULM who also scored 43 points in a 66-43 Mountaineer win. It’s just the sixth time in the Kerns era that App State has held a Division I foe to less than 50 points.
 
Continuing his recent torrid stretch, CJ Huntley recorded his third consecutive 20-point game against the Monarchs, scoring 26 points, one shy of his career high. He also recorded his third double-double in his last three games as he grabbed 12 rebounds to go along with his scoring effort. Myles Tate flirted with a triple-double, tallying 14 points, seven rebounds and seven assists and Jalil Beaubrun recorded his third consecutive double-digit scoring game.
 
How it Happened
Starting the team’s longest road trip of the season, Huntley won the tip over Caelum Swanton-Rodger and the Mountaineers took off from then on. Tate found Huntley in the low post, and he converted the game’s first points to open the scoring. Then, Beaubrun got his night started at the free-throw line where he buried two freebies to make it 4-0.
 
Another pair of free throws from Huntley made it 6-0 before Old Dominion finally found the scoreboard at the 17:14 mark. But Huntley had an answer for ODU’s score as he drilled a three from the right wing to make it 9-1 before most fans had made their way to their seats. Huntley accounted for seven of App State’s first nine points in the game.
 
The Mountaineer lead soared to double digits for the first time in the game at the 15:46 mark after Beaubrun netted his third and fourth free throws of the game. Dodd sunk a three to make it 14-1, capping off a strong first five minutes by the Mountaineers in Norfolk. The Monarchs used the charity stripe to score three straight points, but Huntley answered with a ferocious slam to stop the run.
 
Beginning the game, App State, who came into Thursday’s contest having kept eight straight opponents under 70 points, held ODU scoreless from the floor for the first 6:30 of the game. The Monarchs didn’t make their first field goal until the 13:29 mark of the first half as Sean Durugordon, the Sun Belt’s reigning Player of the Week, snuck his way to the basket.
 
Durugordon’s score was quickly answered by a strong effort by Michael Marcus Jr. on the offensive glass to tally his first points. Again from behind the arc, Huntley hit his second trey of the game before Tate exploded to the basket for his first points to make it 23-6 by the under-12 timeout.
 
A brief scoring slump by both sides persisted for about five minutes of game time as the two teams combined for just one field goal from the 11:03 mark to the 7:22 mark. Jamil Muttilib ended the Mountaineer scoring drought with a floater to put App State back up 14. After a Robert Davis Jr. three, Huntley beat the shot-clock buzzer with an acrobatic, left-handed floater to give him 14 with five minutes to go in the half.
 
App State struggled to find the basket as the half wound down, missing its last four shots to close the half. Despite that, the Mountaineer defense continued to shine as they held the Monarchs to just 18 points, which sent action to halftime with the Mountaineers up 11. The teams combined for just eight points over the final six minutes of the half.
 
Although shooting just 33 percent from the field, it was what the Mountaineers did defensively that allowed them to take a double-digit lead into halftime. The Monarchs made just six field goals in the opening frame and scored just 18 points. It was the fewest points App State has allowed in a half this season. Huntley nearly outscored the Monarchs in the first half, posting a first-half-high 14 on 50 percent shooting.
 
For the first time since the 15:46 mark of the first half, Old Dominion saw its deficit fall below 10 points on its first possession of the half as Swanton-Rodger tallied his first field goal of the game. Beaubrun quickly made it an 11-point game by absorbing contact and making a hook shot in the paint while being fouled. The Mountaineer lead never fell below 10 points again.
 
Tate buried his first three after Beaubrun’s bucket and then Conners picked up a loose ball on the other end and raced up the floor to find Huntley who hammered down a powerful two-handed alley-oop dunk to put App State up 16. ODU trimmed its deficit back to 10 by the first media timeout, but Tate’s second three of the half pushed the Mountaineers back ahead by 13 by the 15:55 mark.
 
After another Tate basket, his eighth points of the second half to that point, Huntley tallied four straight points to give him 20 for the game and shot App State back ahead by 16 with 13 minutes to play. It was his third straight 20-point game. ODU retaliated with free throws from Durugordon, but Tate intercepted a pass from the deep corner and tracked down the loose ball to lay it up before the under-12 break to give him 12 and put the Mountaineers ahead by 16.
 
Huntley’s 10th rebound of the contest came at the 8:30 mark of the second half, marking his third double-double in his last four games. He was also the recipient of a slick find by Beaubrun down low which he threw home for his 22nd points of the game.
 
Out of the under-eight timeout, App State and Dior Conners extended its lead to a game-high 20 thanks to a quick burst from the guard for a layup. Old Dominion tallied six straight points to make it a 15-point game, but Jackson Threadgill sunk a three to end the run and swell the App State lead back to 18 with two minutes to go.
 
Putting an exclamation mark on the contest, Huntley tallied the Mountaineers’ last four points, which included a ferocious alley-oop jam off a find from Dodd with six seconds to play. When the horn sounded, the Mountaineers had claimed their fourth consecutive double-digit win and first win in a true road game this season.
 
Top Performers 
It was a dominant performance for the fifth-year forward from Huntersville as Huntley recorded his third double-double and fourth 20-point performance of the season against the Monarchs. His rebounding deserves special note as he accounted for 12 of App State’s 37 total rebounds and half of the Mountaineers’ offensive boards. Despite a slow start, Tate pitched in 14, 12 coming in the final half, as well as a game-high seven assists. It was his 10th game this season with at least five assists. For the third consecutive contest, Beaubrun tallied double figures with 10 points. He was hard to guard all night as he was fouled seven times, leading to a season-best 11 free-throw attempts.
 
Up Next
App State and James Madison will meet for the second time in the past week on Saturday, this time in Harrisonburg. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+.
 
The 2024-25 men’s basketball season is presented by Foscoe Companies.

 

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