
photo courtesy of Appalachian State Athletics
Appalachian State Men’s Basketball Defeats NC Wesleyan
CJ Huntley scored a career-high 18 points as App State men’s basketball posted an 81-57 victory over North Carolina Wesleyan on Sunday evening.
Huntley finished 5-of-9 (55.6 percent) from the field and 4-of-7 (57.1 percent) on 3-pointers. He added three rebounds.
Kendall Lewis added a season-best 17 points, while adding six rebounds and three steals off the bench. Donovan Gregory added 14 points and four rebounds, while Adrian Delph tallied 10 points and a team-high tying four assists.
Isaiah Lewis paced the Battling Bishops (1-3) with 21 points and seven rebounds.
After N.C. Wesleyan jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, the Mountaineers (3-1) responded with eight straight points to take an 8-4 lead. The Black and Gold broke a 25-25 tie with five straight points, getting a trey from Justin Forrest and a pair of free throws from Lewis. Leading 32-30, the Mountaineers closed the half on a 10-2 spurt to take a 42-32 lead into the half.
In the second half, the Black and Gold went on a 6-0 run to open a 50-34 edge with 17:20 remaining. The Battling Bishops trimmed the Mountaineer lead top 50-39, but App State came right back with a 9-1 run to extend its lead to 59-40. App State pushed its lead to as large of 26 points en route to the 81-57 victory.
The Mountaineers finished 25-of-55 (45.5. percent) from the field and 22-of-28 (78.6 percent) from the free throw line. The Battling Bishops shot 41.2 percent (21-of-51) from the field and went just 2-of-11 (18.2 percent) on 3-pointers.
The Black and Gold forced the Battling Bishops into 16 turnovers, scoring 23 points off those miscues. In addition, App State held a 34-11 edge in bench points.
App State’s Monday contest against LaGrange has been canceled due to COVID-19 issues within the Panthers program. The Mountaineers will return to action on Friday at Charlotte at 5 p.m. on ESPNU and the Appalachian Sports Network from Learfield IMG College.