BOONE, N.C. — Playing in front of its largest crowd since the 2011-12 season, App State men’s basketball defeated ETSU 69-67 in its home opener on Friday evening.The announced crowd of 3,401 was the largest since App State (1-1) hosted East Carolina on Nov. 22, 2011 in front of a crowd of 3,719.ETSU (0-1) opened a 57-55 lead with 6:40 left to play. App State responded with five straight points, getting a 3-pointer from Adrian Delph and dunk from Donovan Gregory, to take a 60-57 lead with just over five minutes remaining.
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The Buccaneers tied the score at 60-60 with 4:20 left to play, but the Mountaineers answered with a pair of Justin Forrest free throws to open a 62-60 edge with 4:02 left.The two teams continued trading points and found themselves deadlocked at 65-65, before Forrest hit a pair of free throws to put App State up 67-65 with 51 seconds left.The Buccaneers answered with a basket to tie the score with 36 seconds left. On the Mountaineers’ next possession, Forrest drew a foul and nailed both free throws with 10 seconds left. The Mountaineers forced ETSU into a tough 3-pointer in the closing seconds that was no good to push their home opener winning streak to eight in a row.App State opened the game strong and jumped out to an early 11-5 lead, capped by a jumper from Terence Harcum.
ETSU responded with an 8-0 run to take a 13-11 edge. The Buccaneers expanded their lead to as many as 10 points at 26-16 with 8:20 left in the opening half. App State pulled within 26-24 late in the half, but ETSU pushed its lead to 33-28 at the break.Delph finished with 19 points and seven rebounds to pace the Mountaineers. Gregory added 12 points, seven rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals. Forrest had nine points and a team-best five assists, while Michael Almonacy tallied nine points and four rebounds. Michael Eads Jr. drained a trio of 3-pointers to finish with nine points off the bench.App State won the rebounding battle 36-29.
App State Basketball Athletic contributed to this column
