Bobcats can’t top Mountaineers, drop first Sun Belt game

Texas State knew how important the rebounding battle was. 

The team had just outrebounded Coastal Carolina, the top team at crashing the boards in the Sun Belt by margin, 45-37 in a 73-58 victory on Thursday. Up next was Appalachian State, another top-3 rebounding team, boasting the conference’s leading rebounder in 6-foot-4 junior center Bailey Plummer averaging 10.5 boards per game.

There were seven missed field goals through the first four minutes of the game Saturday. The Mountaineers grabbed all of them. Senior guard Toshua Leavitt missed a 3-pointer on her next shot. The ball went out of bounds, last touched by the Bobcats, another team rebound for App State.

Junior guard Brooke Holle finally secured the team’s first rebound at the 5:50 mark in the first quarter after a missed jumper by Mountaineers sophomore guard Pre Stanley. But the tone had already been set. App State won the rebounding battle inside Strahan Arena, 46-35, and the game, 62-49.

“I think when we came out and they got, from the get-go, the offensive rebounds back-to-back-to-back, that just put a damper on our energy,” junior guard Bailey Holle said. “Because we knew that that’s what they did well and that’s what we needed to focus on and we weren’t doing what we were capable of. So I think that kind of just got people down.”

Texas State took a 13-12 lead in the first quarter, but the visitors closed out on a 5-0 run and hit the first bucket of the second to build a six-point lead. Freshman guard Kennedy Taylor found freshman forward Da’Nasia Hood for a three at the top of the key to cut the deficit in half, but the Bobcats could never reclaim the lead.

The Mountaineers’ defense kept pressuring the Texas State offense into tough shots, and their dominance on the boards limited any second chance opportunities. The maroon and gold shot just 32 percent from the floor in the first half, and trailed 32-25 heading into the second.

“It’s just tough,” Brooke Holle said. “You can’t really drive in, (Plummer’s) a great shot blocker. And their guards do a great job of perimeter defense. So, we just didn’t quite figure out a way to expose them in the paint.”

The Bobcats did a better job of shooting in the second half, sliding up to 37 percent, but still struggled on offense, coughing up eight turnovers.

“We were never able to make the adjustment,” head coach Zenarae Antoine said. “I think that the lack of trust in how we’re going to get to our good shots happened. 

“As teams change and shift and as they scout, then they have the ability to make things tougher. Well then, that’s when we have to change. Maybe you have to make an extra pass, maybe you run a different play, maybe you run a screen a little bit differently to get some more quality looks. Then that allows you to get back defensively and get in good position.”

The hosts cut the lead down to just four points in the third quarter, but came out flat in the fourth. App State went on a 15-3 run and never looked back, taking the 62-49 victory.

Brooke Holle led the team with 14 points, followed by Leavitt with 11. Senior forward Zandra Emanuel notched double-digit rebounds in consecutive games for the first time this season, snagging 13 on Thursday and 10 against the Mountaineers.

Texas State (8-8, 3-1 Sun Belt) looks to rebound from the loss this Thursday when they travel to Little Rock (7-8, 3-1) to take on the Trojans at 6:30 p.m. for a 2018 conference championship rematch.

“I do think that we’re going to be able to bounce back from this,” Antoine said. “(We) have an understanding of how (Little Rock's) going to play. They’re not going to look different, (head coach Joe) Foley does not change what he does. So, it’s going to be a matter of showing (the players) on game film on Monday where we slipped up.”