Feb. 23, 2005

Final Stats

Boone, N.C. - Appalachian State University seniors Noah Brown, Corwin Davis, Clint Deas, Herbert Jones and Chris McFarland capped their careers at the Holmes Center in style, as the quintet combined for 57 points in Appalachian's 72-54 triumph over archrival Western Carolina Tuesday evening.

A crowd of 5,109, the third-biggest in the history of the Holmes Center, saw Appalachian (16-10, 9-6 Southern Conference) move within one victory of clinching a first-round bye in next week's Southern Conference Tournament.

With the five seniors starting their final home game, the Mountaineers opened up an early 14-5 lead. Western (8-20, 3-12) answered with a 16-7 run, including six points and four rebounds from Terrence Woodyard, to knot the score at 21-21 with 5:58 to go in the first half, but that would be as close as WCU could get the entire contest, as Appalachian scored the next six points and never trailed throughout the victory.

After the Catamounts closed to within two points at halftime on a Negus McKenna 3-pointer as time expired, the Mountaineers outscored the Cats 20-9 over the first six-and-a-half minutes of the second period to take a commanding 52-39 lead.

From there, Appalachian held onto to its double-digit advantage the rest of the way and cruised to its first season sweep over Western Carolina since the 2000-01 campaign.

After being out-rebounded 30-18 in the first half, ASU held a 30-16 advantage on the boards in the second half and held the WCU to just 24 points in the period.

Eleven blocked shots, led by four apiece from Jones and freshman Jeremy Clayton, sparked the Mountaineers' defensive effort. The 11 blocks fell just one short of the team record set against Milligan in 1996.

Jones also paced Appalachian on the offensive end of the floor, pouring in a career-high 18 points. McFarland added 17 points, while Brown rounded out three Mountaineers in double-figures with 12. Clayton grabbed 10 rebounds to spark ASU's second-half turnaround on the boards, while McFarland and Deas just missed double-digits with nine apiece.

David Berghoefer led the Catamounts with 16 points and nine rebounds in the loss. Woodyard added eight points and grabbed nine rebounds, his most versus a Southern Conference opponent in his career.

Western Carolina closes out its regular season with a 7 p.m. home matchup versus UNC Greensboro on Saturday. Prior to the contest, the Department of Athletics will honor Catamount seniors Rans Brempong, Lunzaya Nlandu, Woodyard and manager John Carpenter.