ASU shoots Western down again

CULLOWHEE

Buzz Peterson hasn't been certain at any point in his first season back as Appalachian State's coach exactly what kind of team he has. But his Mountaineers, for all the ups and downs this season, can be a resilient bunch.

ASU bounced back from a loss to Division II King College on Monday with an 89-77 win over Western Carolina yesterday and certified itself as a contender in the Southern Conference's North Division.

The Mountaineers (13-10, 7-4 Southern) closed to a half game of the first-place Catamounts. They did it in front of a crowd of 6,024, the second-largest in Ramsey Center history. And they handed WCU (18-6, 8-4) its first loss in 13 games at home this season.

Peterson is 12-0 all-time against the Catamounts -- 11-0 as coach of the Mountaineers and 1-0 while coach at Tennessee. But he said that it took an intense practice session Wednesday to get his team in gear.

"We played just the ugliest basketball the last two games, against Chattanooga and King College," Peterson said. "Wednesday we went to work."

He said he wasn't in a good mood for Wednesday morning's practice. "I was a complete jerk, and kicked a couple of them out," Peterson said. "The head coach didn't need to be talked back to, I didn't need an answer for anything at that time. I think that got some attention, and struck a nerve. They came back at 4 o'clock and went hard. We went back to work on fundamental and basics."

And yesterday his team played soundly and pulled away down the stretch to complete a regular-season sweep of WCU.

Western closed to 71-69 with 4:21 left on one of Jake Robinson's five 3-point goals, but Donald Sims, who topped his 28-point total two weeks ago against the Catamounts with 29 yesterday, answered with a deep 3 of his own.

That set the Mountaineers off on an 11-2 run, capped by Marcus Wright's clutch shot at the shot-clock buzzer that stretched the Mountaineers' lead to 82-71 with 1:37 left.

"We were scrambling for a loose ball, I finally got it and I heard somebody say, ‘One second, shoot,'" Wright said. "I let it go and it felt good."

From there, the Mountaineers hit 7 of 8 free throws to seal the victory.

Wright, who missed most of the King game with a hip injury, scored his 10 points in the second half.

"This win is huge for our team," Peterson said. "Western hadn't lost in here all year. They've been playing as well as anybody in our league and to come in here and beat them in this environment was one of the best wins for our team this year."

Sims hit 4 of 6 3-point attempts and also made all nine of his free throws to boost his nation-leading total to 110 of 116 (94.8 percent) from the line.

"It seems that it takes a packed house and playing a team that hasn't lost at home to get us excited, but the thing is we can't have that," Sims said. "We need to move on from here. Now we've got to get more consistent. We've shown we are a good team in this league. We've just got to come every night to play."

The Catamounts struggled to score in the final three minutes.

"We finally defended somebody," Sims said. "Monday night's loss was embarrassing. We were horrible defensively. That's what we worked on for the last two days in practice and they went through spells they couldn't score."

Western got 19 points from both Robinson and Brandon Giles, but was hurt by 14 turnovers and starters Brigham Waginger and Richie Gordon fouled out down the stretch.

"We couldn't get in a flow," Coach Larry Hunter of the Catamounts said. "We couldn't get up and down the floor, we couldn't make our depth a factor… It was just go possession, stop. Go possession, stop. We did not do a good job adapting to how they were calling it. Sometimes they let you play and bang a little bit, other times it was touch fouls."

The Mountaineers used a zone defense to weather a second-half stretch when post players Ike Butts and Josh Hunter picked up their fourth fouls, and wound up with solid production inside. Butts totaled 14 points and nine rebounds. Hunter scored 10 points, and the Mountaineers were able to overcome 19 turnovers by shooting 60 percent.

"We were trying to go inside and get them I in foul trouble as much as we could," Peterson said. "I think the offensive efficiency in the second half was good, we got the ball in the right people's hands."

tbowman@wsjournal.com
727-7320

ASU Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts

Hunter 19 2-2 6-6 0-4 0 4 10

Butts 22 6-6 2-3 4-9 0 4 14

Sims 35 8-11 9-9 1-2 2 1 29

Booth 19 2-6 0-0 1-2 0 1 4

Brand 32 3-7 2-3 0-3 1 0 8

Abrhm 10 1-2 0-0 0-1 3 2 2

Healy 10 0-1 1-2 0-3 1 1 1

Wright 23 4-10 2-3 0-5 1 1 10

Webb 7 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 3

Wllmsn 22 3-4 2-2 0-5 0 1 8

Totals 199 30-50 24-28 7-36 8 16 89

Percentages: FG .600, FT .857; 3-Point Goals: 5-14, .357 (Sims 4-6, Webb 1-1, Wright 0-2, Brand 0-2, Booth 0-3); Team Rebounds: 2; Blocked Shots: 2 (Williamson, Butts); Turnovers: 19 (Butts 5, Sims 4, Williamson 2, Booth, Brand, Healy, Wright, Hunter, Abraham); Steals: 9 (Booth 3, Brand 2, Sims 2, Hunter, Abraham); Technical Fouls: Healy.

WCU Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts

Gaillrd 22 2-6 0-0 2-4 0 1 4

Gordn 17 0-4 0-0 1-1 2 5 0

Giles 28 7-13 3-4 1-3 1 2 19

Willms 33 4-13 2-3 2-3 4 4 11

Wagngr 22 3-5 0-0 1-5 4 5 7

Russell 13 1-2 0-0 3-4 0 2 2

Cole 3 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Phillip 3 0-0 0-0 1-1 1 1 0

Mutmbo 31 6-12 2-6 1-1 2 2 15

Robinsn 28 7-10 0-0 1-5 0 3 19

Totals 200 30-67 7-13 15-30 14 25 77

Percentages: FG .448, FT .538; 3-Point Goals: 10-27, .370 (Robinson 5-8, Giles 2-6, Waginger 1-3, Williams 1-4, Mutombo 1-4, Cole 0-2); Team Rebounds: 3; Blocked Shots: 2 (Gailliard, Gordon); Turnovers: 14 (Waginger 3, Gordon 2, Mutombo 2, Williams 2, Robinson 2, Phillip, Russell, Giles); Steals: 9 (Giles 3, Waginger 2, Gordon 2, Russell, Mutombo); Technical Fouls: Waginger.

Appalachian State 36 53 -- 89
Western Carolina 34 43 -- 77

A--6,024.