Senior forward Bonae Holston ended her career at State with 9 points and 12 rebounds. This would also mark the end of senior guard Emili Tasler’s career — a night in which she posted a 7 point and 3 assist performance.
“It’s been a great experience,” Tasler said. “All of the seniors have grown and we’ve had the opportunity to have two great coaches. I couldn’t change anything, so it’s been a great experience.”
The first half saw the Wolfpack in control throughout. Sophomore center Kody Burke went on a streak of scoring eight straight points for the Pack early in the half and State got out to a seven-point lead, 23-16, with six minutes left.
The Mountaineers began to close the gap by the end of the half, bringing the score to 29-26, until junior guard Marissa Kastanek stole an inbounds pass and scored a buzzer-beater layup, putting the score at 31-25 going into the half.
Appalachian came out of the locker room poised to mount a comeback. A midrange jumper form forward Courtney Freeman made it a two point game, 33-31, with 17:40 remaining in the game. After a steal by Mountaineer guard Raven Gary, forward Anna Freeman finished the break and gave App the lead, 36-35.
“I felt like they were much more aggressive on defense in the second half, much more aggressive,” head coach Kellie Harper said.
Burke scored 17 points in the first half, but App State put the claps on her in the second, allowing her only 4 points. She finished the game with 21 points and 11 rebounds.
“In the first half I started out with great focus,” Burke said. “I guess I let my tiredness get the best of me. That may have affected me in the second half, but either way I felt like they had better defense on me. It was hard for me to get rebounds.”
Freeman exploded after her dismal first half. She scored 22 of her 26 points in the second half to go along with 4 second half steals, bringing her game total to 6.
Appalachian was able to mount a nine-point lead with five minutes left in the second half, but the Pack showed a resilient attitude and was able to cut the lead to two with 20 seconds remaining in the game.
With seven seconds remaining in the game with the score at 64-60, Appalachian, Burke drained two free throws to make it a two-point game. State was not able create a much-needed turnover and was forced to send Anna Freeman to the line. Freeman went two for two and put the game out of reach for the Pack.
“As a coach, I don’t think I’ve ever gone into a game with a season ending speech in mind,” Harper said. “[It was] really hard in the locker room to talk to our kids after the game and look at the seniors. It’s not how we wanted our season to end. We had hopes of playing a little more basketball… it just wasn’t meant to be today.”
