AP Scorecard
December 18, 2024Friday, December 20th
December 19, 2024Slow Start Plagues Mountaineers in Conference Opener
Dec. 18, 2024
Contact: Jacob Plecker (pl*******@ap******.edu)
Box Score: Attached
LAFAYETTE, La. – In the team’s first trip to the Cajundome since March 3, 2019, the App State Mountaineers (6-5, 0-1 SBC) got off to a slow first-half start and couldn’t overcome a double-digit halftime deficit as the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns (3-9, 1-0 SBC) took home a 68-62 win on Wednesday.
The Mountaineers struggled to string together baskets in the ballgame and despite outscoring the Ragin’ Cajuns by eight points in the second half, a 23-3 run by Louisiana in the first half was all it needed to jump ahead and secure the victory. The Mountaineers scored just five points in the first 12 minutes of the contest.
App State saw three players eclipse double figures against Louisiana, led by Dior Conners’ 15 points. Conners was efficient with his scoring, tallying those 15 points on 6-9 shooting and three treys. CJ Huntley battled foul trouble early but still managed to score 11 points, bringing him just six points away from reaching 1,000 career points.
Louisiana came into Wednesday’s Sun Belt opener with the worst scoring defense in the Sun Belt, but that was not the case against the Mountaineers as it held App State to just 62 points and four made threes. Additionally, the Ragin’ Cajuns outrebounded the Mountaineers by five, a category in which the Ragin’ Cajuns have struggled in all season.
How it Happened
Kicking off conference play at the earliest point since 2012, App State opened the scoring in Lafayette as CJ Huntley snuck into the lane for his first points of the game. Huntley’s basket was answered by Kyran Ratliff’s first basket as his score tied it at two with 18:25 to go in the opening half.
A three by Louisiana’s Kyndall Davis helped give the Ragin’ Cajuns the lead and kickstarted what was an extended 23-3 run by Louisiana, allowing it to take command of the contest. Another three by Davis gave the Ragin’ Cajuns a six-point lead by the first media timeout, but Jalil Beaubrun’s free throw trimmed the Mountaineer deficit to five by the 14:58 mark.
The Ragin’ Cajuns continued their hot shooting as play continued with Kentrell Garnett and Brandon Hardy each drilling a three. Hardy’s layup at the 11:20 mark extended the Ragin’ Cajun lead to 14 by the under-12 timeout.
Alonzo Dodd stopped the bleeding with a layup plus the foul at the 10:28 mark. Before Dodd’s basket, the Mountaineers had missed nine of their first 10 shots. Louisiana continued to build its lead despite Dodd’s basket, jumping ahead 23-5 before the second-to-last media break of the half.
App State found a bit of rhythm out of the break as Jackson Threadgill sunk a baseline layup for his first basket and Beaubrun tallied his first field goal to push the Mountaineers over double digits. A pair of free throws by Myles Tate shrunk the Louisiana lead to 12 by the final media stoppage.
Dior Conners’ first bucket of the half trimmed the deficit to 11, but the Ragin’ Cajuns hit two straight shots to build their lead back to 15 with just over two minutes to play. App State recorded field goals from Threadgill and Conners before the buzzer, but a London Fields three sent things to the half with Louisiana up 14.
The Mountaineers couldn’t get anything going from the field to start the game, making just seven field goals and no 3-pointers. App State’s 21 points marked the fewest the Mountaineers have scored in a half since Feb. 4, 2023, against James Madison. On the other hand, the Ragin’ Cajuns netted six threes and led by as much as 18 in the opening stanza.
It was a back-and-forth start to the second half as the two teams traded baskets on 10 straight possessions. App State started hot from the field, making four of its first seven field goals, but struggled to string together stops to draw closer.
Garnett’s trey at the 14:48 mark pushed the Ragin’ Cajuns back ahead by 16 at the first media timeout and they maintained that advantage by the under-12 break. App State was able to score some points with the clock stopped during this stretch as Huntley and Beaubrun netted free throws to keep the Mountaineers within striking distance.
With eight minutes to play in the final half, the Mountaineers started to mount a substantial comeback. It started with Tate’s layup at the 7:16 mark, which was followed by Conners’ layup off a slick find from Michael Marcus Jr. Conners’ layup trimmed the Louisiana lead to 11 with 5:45 to play.
A pair of Dodd free throws trimmed the Mountaineer deficit to just 10, the closest the score had gotten since the 13:52 point of the first half. Out of the final media timeout, Huntley got loose down low to trim the deficit to just eight. But the Ragin’ Cajuns and Michael Thomas drilled a three to push them back ahead by 11 to quiet things down with three minutes to go.
After a pair of Huntley free throws following the Thomas three, a hustle play on the offensive glass resulted in a Conners three from the right wing, trimming the Ragin’ Cajun lead to six with two minutes to play. After a miss on the other end, Dodd raced up the floor and got fouled resulting in a one-and-one chance. Dodd missed the front end, forcing the Mountaineers to foul.
The Mountaineers buried two more threes to close the contest, but Louisiana’s strong opening 12 minutes allowed it to jump ahead and secure the Sun Belt victory on its home floor.
Top Performers
In his first Sun Belt contest, Dior Conners paced all scorers with 15 points, his fourth double-digit outing since entering the starting lineup on Nov. 19. Conners scored 11 of those points in the final half. Despite battling three first-half fouls, CJ Huntley ended his night with 11 points, with nine of them coming in the final frame. He sits just six points away from becoming App State’s 37th member of the 1,000-point club. Rounding out the Mountaineers’ double-digit scorers was Myles Tate, who finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and a career-high five steals.
Up Next
App State turns its attention to the North Texas Mean Green on Friday in what will be the first matchup between the two programs in exactly 34 years. It will also mark the Mountaineers’ first trip to The Super Pit ever. Tipoff from Denton, Texas, is slated for 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT) and can be streamed on ESPN+.
The 2024-25 men’s basketball season is presented by Foscoe Companies.
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