Davidson 68, Appalachian State 64
BOONE, N.C. - Despite 56 points from its backcourt trio of Maria Grimes, GiGi Thomas and Whitney Tossie, Appalachian State University women’s basketball dropped its final home game of the season to Davidson, 68-64, on Tuesday evening at the Holmes Center.
With Appalachian trailing by four points and six seconds remaining on the clock, Tossie stole the Davidson inbounds pass, but the Mountaineers couldn’t get off a solid shot in the final seconds as the Wildcats completed the regular season series sweep.
With the loss, Appalachian dropped into a three-way tie for seventh place at 11-17 overall and 5-12 in league play and is assured of playing on the first round of next week’s Southern Conference Tournament. ASU opens postseason play next Tuesday at North Charleston Coliseum versus an opponent still to be determined. The fourth-place Wildcats improved to 21-7 overall and 12-5 in the SoCon.
Paced by Mercedes Robinson’s 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting off the bench, Davidson’s subs out scored Appalachian’s, 29-2, in the victory. The Mountaineers finished with 14 steals, their most since December 29 of this season, and forced a season-high 27 turnovers by Davidson, who ranks second in the league in turnovers per game.
Grimes (Birmingham, Ala.) drained six three-pointers, just one short of the school record, for a game-high 26 points and Thomas (Tallahassee, Fla.) and Tossie (Oviedo, Fla.) chipped in with 16 and 14, respectively. Tossie, who ranks second in the nation in steals per game, finished with seven steals on the night, while senior Shante Williams (Spartanburg, S.C.) led the team with seven rebounds in the final home game of her career.
Brynn Kelly and Katie Hamilton joined Robinson in double-figures for the Wildcats with 13 points apiece. Each added a game-high eight rebounds.
On Davidson’s opening possession of the second half, Tossie took her own steal back for a layup to break the halftime tie and give ASU the 34-32 lead with 19:30 to go in the game. After another tie at 34, Appalachian held onto the lead until a jumper by Honna Housley tied the game up at 48-all with 10:30 to go. In the next 30 seconds, Davidson grabbed its first lead since the 11:08 mark at 50-48 with 10 minutes to play.
The Mountaineers kept fighting back as they regained the lead again at the four minute mark and held onto it until just 1:46 remained on the clock. ASU scored just one bucket in the final three minutes and Davidson hit free throws down the stretch as the visitors went away with a 68-64 victory.
Davidson jumped out to a 4-0 lead to start the game, before Thomas hit the team’s first bucket, a three-pointer at the 16:37 mark. Davidson would maintain the lead until a three-point bucket by Grimes gave Appalachian its first lead of the game at 13-11 with 11:13 to go in the first period.
With the score tied at 13 apiece, the Mountaineers used a 9-0 run to take a 24-13 lead and force a Wildcat timeout. After one more bucket by Tossie to extend the lead to 11 with just over six minutes to play, Davidson used a 13-0 run of its own to regain the lead at 26-25 with 2:45 on the clock. Another three by Grimes ended ASU’s four-minute scoring drought and the two teams traded buckets before going into halftime tied at 32 apiece.
The Mountaineers close out regular-season play on Saturday at Elon. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. at Elon’s Alumni Gym.